Khalil has been detained since he was arrested in March. The government has argued that the secretary of state can “personally determine” whether he should remain in the country.

A federal judge has ruled that the government cannot deport and must release Mahmoud Khalil, the student whom the Trump administration jailed over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University.

A federal judge ruled this week that the government could not continue to hold the Columbia University graduate under the rarely invoked law it originally used to detain him.

Khalil has been detained since March after the Trump administration began targeting students for pro-Palestinian activism.