Judge orders Columbia student protester be allowed private calls with lawyers

A US judge orders that a detained Columbia University student be allowed to have private phone calls with lawyers challenging his arrest by immigration authorities.

Mahmoud Khalil’s case has become a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s pledge to deport pro-Palestinian college activists. Khalil’s lawyers argue the arrest violated his right to free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, and have urged his release.

At a hearing in Manhattan federal court, Khalil’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem says his client had been allowed just one call with his legal team from immigration detention in Louisiana. Kassem says the call was cut off prematurely and was on a line recorded and monitored by the government.

US District Judge Jesse Furman rules that Khalil, 29, and his lawyers should have one phone call today and another one tomorrow covered by attorney-client privilege, meaning the government would not have access to their conversation.

Furman on Monday temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation.

Furman says the calls would help Khalil’s lawyers prepare a revised petition challenging the constitutionality of his arrest on Saturday evening by Department of Homeland Security agents outside his university residence in Manhattan.

“Mr. Khalil was identified, targeted, detained and is being processed for deportation on account of his advocacy for Palestinian rights,” Kassem says in court.