Hundreds together in front of the New York Court to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil | News Donald Trump

Hundreds of people gathered in front of the New York courtroom to demand the release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalilwhose arrests caused condemnation and fear of combating free speech in the United States during the weekend.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the Federal Court of Manhattan on Wednesday at the first official hearing in Khalil’s case, as it faces a possible deportation for their activism.

“Release Mahmoud Khalil immediately!” They sang.

During a brief hearing, Khalil’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem said His client He is allowed only one call with his legal team from the detention center, where he is held in the southern state of Louisiana.

But Kassem said that the call had been cut off too early and that the government had recorded and monitored the government.

US District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that Khalil and his lawyers should have one phone call on Wednesday and the other, covered by the privilege of lawyer-Klijent, which means that the Government would not have access to their conversation.

Furman temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation on Monday.

The Agents for Immigration and Customs (ICE) arrested Khalil, a 29-year graduate of Columbia University and the U.S. permanent population, in their residence in New York over the weekend.

Ice officials said they were planning to revoke his green card at the request of the US Ministry.

Khalil was headed by the Pro-Palestinian demonstrations At Columbia University last year, where students demanded the end of the Israeli war in the Gaza belt. He mostly served as a spokesman and negotiator.

But while for the campaign for the second term in the White House, US President Donald Trump pledged To stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that broke out after Israel launched a deadly war against Gaza in October 2023 and deported all parties of students involved.

After assuming his duty, he began to issue executive actions, signaling that he would make his threats.

“To all the residents of Aliens who joined the Pro-Jihadist protests, we informed you: Come in 2025, we will find you and we will deport you,” Trump said in the White House a sheet with facts.

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers at the college campuses, who have been infected with radicalism as never before.”

Trump recently welcomed Khalil’s arrest, saying on Monday that “he is the first of many to come.”

He accused students across the country of dealing with “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American” that his administration “would not tolerate”.

However, experts say that Khalil’s custody emphasizes the increasing attack on the Pro-Palestinian activism in the US, as well as a worrying sign for freedom of expression and disagreement under Trump’s administration.

“Objectively, what really happens is the effort to silence all the public expression of support to Palestinian human rights to set up the right -wing supporters of Israel within the Republican Party,” Nader Hashemi, a professor at Georgetown University, said Al Jazeera this week.

Legal issues

The legal basis for Khalil’s custody has also been called into question.

Karolina Leavitt White House Secretary told reporters on Tuesday State Secretary Marco Rubio He could revoke Khalil’s green card if Rubio determined that his presence in the United States is contrary to state security and interests in foreign policy in the country.

Citing Government document with the detailed civic accusations that Khalil faces, the Washington Post also reported on Wednesday that Rubi’s determination is “so far the only justification for Trump’s administration” to attempt deportation.

Separately, Rubio told reporters that Khalil’s case was “not about free speech.”

“This is about people who are not entitled to be in the United States to begin with,” top American diplomats told reporters at the Irish airport Shannon while stopping the fuel after traveling to Saudi Arabia.

“No one has the right to a student visa. By the way, no one has the right to a green ticket,” Rubio said.

However, speaking outside the Manhattan court, Khalil’s lawyer Kassem told reporters that he rarely uses a legal provision that Trump’s administration seemed not intended to silence the disagreement.

“It’s not intended to get used to it Silence of Pro-Palestinian speech Or any other speech that the Government does not like, “Kassem said.

Khalilil’s lawyers also asked Furman – a judge who oversees the case – to order their client to return from Louisiana to New York.

Reporting from New York on Wednesday afternoon, Kristen Saloomey, Al Jazeera, said the Khalil’s legal team claimed that he should be returned to the city because she is far from his lawyers and pregnant wife.

“And they also claim that it was targeted only because of their activism in support of Palestinian rights and calls for the end of the Gaza genocide,” Saloomey said.

At the hearing, Government lawyer Brandon Waterman said he was planning to challenge Ferman’s authority to decide the case.

Waterman said Khalil’s Molba was supposed to be filed in Louisiana or New Jersey, where he was initially brought after his arrest.

Furman, calling legal questions “important and difficult”, asked two sides to hand over a joint letter on Friday, describing when proposing to submit written arguments about the legal issues launched by Khalil’s custody.