Following Mahmoud Khalil breaking his silence in a letter from a Louisiana detention center, a New York federal judge has ordered his case be transferred to New Jersey. FOX 5 NY's Michelle has the very latest.
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00:00We're going to kick things off with that breaking news concerning Columbia graduate and Palestinian
00:04activist Mahmoud Khalil. Let's get right over to Fox 5's Michelle Ross in the newsroom. So,
00:08Michelle, what are you learning at this hour? Well, Bianca, the judge says the case should
00:12be heard in federal court in New Jersey because that's where Mahmoud Khalil was being held at the
00:17time his lawyers first went to court. Khalil was detained by federal immigration agents earlier
00:23this month over his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia University's campus. From New
00:29York, he was taken to an immigration detention center in New Jersey, then taken back to New York
00:34to be put on a plane and flown to Louisiana to an immigrant facility there. Now, the federal
00:39government said it had to move the 30-year-old international affairs graduate student to
00:44Louisiana because of a lack of detention center beds in the New York area and a bed bug infestation
00:50at a different facility in New Jersey. Now, Khalil's lawyers, of course, dispute these claims,
00:55arguing he was moved down south in a jurisdiction more favorable to the Republican administration.
01:01Now, Khalil was a negotiator for student activists who created an encampment on the
01:05Ivy League school's campus last spring. The U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman writing,
01:11these are serious allegations and arguments that no doubt warrant careful review by a court of law.
01:17The fundamental constitution principle that all persons in the United States are entitled to due
01:22process of law demands no less. Khalil is a green card holder with no criminal history,
01:27but the White House accuses him of siding with terrorists, and President Donald Trump says
01:32this case is the first of many to come. Bianca? All right, Michelle, thank you so much for the
01:36update on that. Appreciate it.