Judge allows Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation

A US judge has ruled the government can deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate arrested last month by immigration officers.

Mr Khalil, a permanent legal US resident, has not been charged with a crime. The government is seeking to remove him under a Cold War-era immigration law.

He has been held at a Louisiana detention centre since 8 March, when US immigration officers told him he was being deported for taking part in campus protests against the war in Gaza.

In a letter written from the facility, Mr Khalil has said his “arrest was a direct consequence” of speaking out for Palestine.