NEW YORK: A US judge has extended his order blocking federal authorities from deporting a detained Columbia University student, in a case that has become a flashpoint of President Donald Trump’s administration’s pledge to deport some pro-Palestinian college activists.

US District Judge Jesse Furman had temporarily blocked Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation earlier this week, and extended the prohibition on Wednesday in a written order following a hearing in Manhattan federal court to allow himself more time to consider whether the arrest was unconstitutional.

In a court filing shortly before midnight on Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers told Judge Furman in Manhattan that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

The Department of Homeland Security says Khalil, 30, is subject to deportation under a legal provision holding that migrants whose presence in the country are deemed by the US Secretary of State to be incompatible with foreign policy may be removed.

Meanwhile, scores of people poured into the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday to protest the detention of Mahmoud Khalil. The arrest of Khalil, who is in immigration custody in Louisiana after his arrest in New York on Saturday, has sparked an outcry by Democratic lawmakers, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian territories, and civil liberty advocates, among others.

Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes itself as a progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organisation, carried out Thursday’s demonstration. The group said it was “taking over the Trump Tower to register our mass refusal”. “We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalise Palestinians and all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people,” the group said in a post on X.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2025