Khalil, a Columbia student, was arrested by ICE in March over his involvement in pro-Palestine activism despite being a permanent resident. Citing a Cold War-era law, administration officials claimed Khalil’s presence in the country is detrimental to the US’s foreign policy interest.

Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s widening crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

This is the first judge to rule on the constitutionality of President Trump's pursuit of the deportation of any non-citizen deemed a peril to U.S. foreign policy.