BREAKING: A federal court has ordered the release of Mahmoud Khalil if the government doesn’t appeal by Friday morning, dealing a major setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to detain and deport non-citizens over protected speech.
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2/ The court had already ruled that Khalil was being targeted under a likely unconstitutionally vague law that let Secretary of State Marco Rubio decide, on a whim, that a non-citizen’s presence in the U.S. “would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest."
3/ The idea that a college student’s peaceful participation in pro-Palestinian protests could qualify was always far-fetched. The court recognized Khalil had no way of knowing his speech could get him deported. And the government produced no evidence that Khalil engaged in any unlawful activity.
4/ The court today rejected the government’s backup claim — that Khalil left out information in his green card application — concluding it was just a cover to deport him for other reasons.
5/ Expert evidence submitted to the court, and never rebutted by the Trump administration, established that lawful permanent residents are almost never detained for such omissions.
The court’s ruling confirms what many long suspected: Khalil was targeted not for his actions, but for his opinions.
He hasn’t been ordered released, he just can’t be detained based on his speech. The order explicitly says he can continue to be detained for other reasons, like the BS visa issue they made up after the fact.
But the court also held as a matter of fact that the current detention is unconstitutional, as the government did not show it had legitimate reasons. Which means he has to be released.
Could they come up with some new bullshit? Sure. But that's always the case. For now, he's gotta be freed.
Idk about that...his writing is terrible, but "overwhelmingly likely that the Petitioner would not be detained" doesn't read to me as "Petitioner must be released." The Regime is doing "overwhelmingly" unlikely things every single day.
But I guess we'll see what happens later today 🤷🏼♂️
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The court’s ruling confirms what many long suspected: Khalil was targeted not for his actions, but for his opinions.
Could they come up with some new bullshit? Sure. But that's always the case. For now, he's gotta be freed.
But I guess we'll see what happens later today 🤷🏼♂️