**NEW YORK**
Protesters gathered outside the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on Wednesday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian Columbia University graduate and legal US permanent resident who is facing detention and potential deportation.
The rally took place as a federal judge heard arguments regarding Khalil’s arrest Saturday and detention.
US District Judge Jesse Furman blocked the deportation of Khalil from the US on Monday.
"To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise," he said in his ruling.
Khalil, a green card holder and a recent Columbia University graduate who helped lead a pro-Palestinian encampment last April, was arrested at his university-owned residence in New York and transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana.
Khalil's attorneys planned to file a petition Wednesday for his release from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the state of Louisiana.
According to Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, Khalil was “wrongfully arrested” by ICE agents who claimed his student visa was revoked -- even though he is a legal permanent resident and not in the US on a student visa. He is married to a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.
Fourteen members of Congress, including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley have signed a letter Tuesday demanding Khalil's release, criticizing his detention as an "attempt to criminalize political protest" and a "direct assault on freedom of speech."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Khalil’s case is not about free speech, stating it concerns his legal status in the US following his role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
“This is not about free speech. This is about people who don’t have a right to be in the United States,” Rubio said.
"When you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason, but I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalization, complicit in shutting down learning institutions -- there are kids at these schools that can’t go to class," he added.
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