A federal judge prohibited the Trump administration’s temporary attempt to deport the pro -Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested at the weekend by immigration agents.

Mr. Khalil, a graduate of the University of Colombia and the permanent resident of the United States, played a major role in the Gaza war protests last year on the Ivy Association campus in New York City.

The arrest is part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out the protesters supporting the Palestinians on the campus, while it was called “the first arrest of many.”

The demonstrators gathered in New York City on Monday afternoon, pushing the release of Mr. Khalil and condemning the actions of the Trump administration.

“Now we are facing a terrifying fact that our student, a member of the Colombia community, has become a political prisoner here in the United States,” said Colombia Professor Michael Thadius in a statement.

The judge set a session on Wednesday, when Mr. Khalil, born in Syria, is expected to appear, according to the court documents.

His lawyer said that ICE enforcement agents (ICE) informed Mr. Khalil that they were canceling the visa of the students and the green card when he was detained on Saturday.

The Ministry of Internal Security accused the former student of “the leading activities that are in line with Hamas”, but there were no details.

BBC asked the agency to obtain more information about these allegations.

Trump has previously stated that foreign students found that they were “terrorist sympathizers” who would face deportation. Mr. Khalil is the first detainee known by this policy.

His lawyer, Amy Jarir, condemned his detention as “terrible and not forgiven”, describing him as part of the “open repression of the American government of students’ activity and political speech.”

Mr. Khalil was not accused of any crime.

Ice agents in the university’s Manhattan apartment and initially placed him in a migration facility in New Jersey before transferring him to a detention center in Gina, Louisiana, according to ICE records.

His lawyer claims that ICE also threatened to arrest his wife, an American citizen carrying eight months. When she tried to visit him in New Jersey, officials told her that he was not there.

Columbia University has stated that law enforcement could enter property on the campus with a memorandum, but it denied that the university leadership had invited ice agents.

On Sunday, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio again confirmed the administration’s position, and published it on X: “We will cancel visas and/or green cards for Hamas supporters in America so that they can be deported.”

The Trump administration announced last week that it will cancel 400 million dollars (310 million pounds) in federal grants to Colombia, accusing it of failing to fight anti -Semitism on the campus.

Colombia was the center of the past year of protests for students who support Palestinians at the country level against the war in Gaza and support the United States for Israel.

Mr. Khalil was a major negotiator for the University of Colombia in the apartheid of abstraction when the demonstrators established a huge camp for a tent in the university grass in protest against the Gaza war.

He later told the BBC that he was temporarily suspended by the university, as he was a graduate student at the College of International and Public Affairs.

The head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Donna Lieberman, described his deportation “the targeted revenge and the severe attack on the first amendment.”

New York Prosecutor Littia James said it is “very concerned” and monitors the case.

Some Jewish students in Colombia claim that the rhetoric of the line is sometimes to anti -Semitism, while others joined the demonstrations supporting the Palestinians.

Carly, an American Jewish student in Colombia and a friend of Mr. Khalil, told the BBC that the detainee was “a very care spirit.”

“He was very targeted on the Internet and seeing how he was very distorted, it is very painful, as a person knows him on a personal level,” said Carley, who refused to share her name for private reasons.

Speaking of Fox News, Tsar Tom Homin from Trump claimed that Mr. Khalil had violated the conditions for his visa through “building buildings and property destruction”.

The Israeli army launched its campaign against Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack across the border in Israel on October 7, 2023, which left about 1,200 people dead and 251 hostages.

More than 48,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the military action of Israel, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

With additional reports from Nada Tawfik