International students finally have some relief from President Donald Trump’s wrath—at least for now.
On Friday, a federal judge granted bail to Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who was targeted for deportation because of his pro-Palestinian advocacy. After being imprisoned in a Louisiana ICE facility, Khalil will now be free as he awaits his trial.
Khalil was among the first students who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Despite being a green card holder, Khalil—whose wife and newborn child are U.S. citizens—still faces deportation under the Trump administration.
“After more than three months we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,” Khalil’s wife Dr. Noor Abdalla said in a statement provided by the ACLU.
Mahmoud Khalil
“We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians. But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom,” she continued.
Just before it was announced that Khalil would be returning home to his family, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s attempt to ban Harvard from enrolling international students.
Last month, Trump declared that international students at Harvard either needed to transfer or give up their legal status. And as Trump made students’ lives impossibly difficult and scary, he claimed to have done it in the name of antisemitism. He also accused Harvard of colluding with the Chinese Communist Party.
Both wins for Khalil and international students overall are welcome successes in Trump’s war on immigrants and higher education.
And as universities push back against Trump’s attempts to police what they teach, who they hire, and who receives scholarships or grants, the income generated by international students may help them continue fighting this battle of educational autonomy a little longer.
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