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.

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Columbia University demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil were likely unconstitutional. Judge Michael E. Farbiarz in New Jersey ruled that an obscure section of immigration law cited by the Trump administration couldn’t be used against Khalil as a basis to deport him for things he said in the U.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's attempt to deport Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil is likely unconstitutional.