Judge orders release of Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil from detention

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention centre where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests.U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz announced the decision from the bench in New Jersey, responding to a request from Khalil’s lawyers to free him on bail or, at the very least, move him from a Louisiana jail to New Jersey so he can be closer to his wife and newborn son.