The Trump administration said Friday that it will continue to detain Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil, after a federal judge ruled that he could not be held based on the U.S. secretary of state’s determination that he could harm American foreign policy.
The government said in a filing that it is instead holding Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, at an immigration lockup on allegations that he lied on his green card application.
They also said Khalil satisfied all of the court’s requirements to go free and that the government’s lawyers missed a Friday morning deadline to challenge the judge's Wednesday ruling ordering Khalil be set free.
“The deadline has come and gone and Mahmoud Khalil must be released immediately,” his lawyers said in a statement provided by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the groups representing him. “Anything further is an attempt to prolong his unconstitutional, arbitrary, and cruel detention.”