On Wednesday evening, hours before the latest immigration hearing in the case of Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration was in the midst of pitched battle to prevent Mr. Khalil from holding his 1-month-old son.
Lawyers for Mr. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who was a leading figure in pro-Palestinian protests on the campus, have been fighting for days to win him what is known as a “contact visit” with his wife and child. Mr. Khalil, who is being detained in Louisiana, has not seen his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, in person since he was arrested in March, and has never met their son, Deen, who was born on April 21.
On Wednesday, a New Jersey judge, Michael E. Farbiarz, ordered the administration to allow Mr. Khalil to hold a single joint meeting with his wife and his lawyers. But it was unclear whether the judge’s order would permit Mr. Khalil to meet his son, given Trump officials’ reluctance to allow such a visit.
“Granting Khalil this relief of family visitation would effectively grant him a privilege that no other detainee receives,” Justice Department officials wrote in a court filing on Wednesday. “Allowing Dr. Abdalla and a newborn to attend a legal meeting would turn a legal visitation into a family one.”
Their filing also included an affidavit from Brian Acuna, the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in New Orleans.
“Because the facility does not house female detainees or minors, it is unsafe to allow Mr. Khalil’s wife and newborn child into a secured part of the facility,” Mr. Acuna wrote, adding that a contact visit had “never been offered to any other detainee.”
Mr. Khalil’s lawyers said in court filings that the administration’s refusal to allow the family to touch was “further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr. Khalil’s arrest and faraway detention as well as the ongoing punitive nature of his detention.”
Mr. Khalil, Dr. Abdalla and their infant son “are, as all the evidence in this case demonstrates, the farthest thing from a security risk,” the lawyers wrote.
Mr. Khalil, a legal permanent resident, has not been accused of a crime. But the Trump administration has argued that his presence in the United States threatens its foreign policy goal of preventing antisemitism. In response, Mr. Khalil’s lawyers have noted instances in which he has explicitly denounced antisemitism, and have argued that the government is cracking down on speech that supports the Palestinian cause.
His case is playing out in two different courts: the federal court in New Jersey where Judge Farbiarz is considering the free speech and due process issues that have attracted widespread attention; and a court in Louisiana where Homeland Security officials are hoping to persuade an immigration judge, Jamee Comans, to bless their attempt to remove Mr. Khalil from the country.
Judge Comans, like all immigration judges, is an employee of the executive branch, and has already ruled that Mr. Khalil can be deported. But on Thursday, Mr. Khalil’s lawyers will seek to convince her that he would suffer egregious harm were he to be removed, most likely to Syria or Algeria.
The fight over whether Mr. Khalil could hold his baby began earlier this week, when his lawyers asked that their client be allowed to visit with Dr. Abdalla, who planned to travel the 1,400 miles between New York and Jena, La., with Deen.
An administrator at the detention facility agreed that the couple could visit, but specified that it would be “non-contact,” meaning that the two would not be allowed to touch and could speak only through a clear divider. Mr. Khalil’s lawyers then asked for an exception so that their client could hold his newborn son. The facility again said no.
Mr. Khalil’s lawyers then took their fight to Judge Farbiarz, who quickly responded, saying he was inclined to allow a family visit. He ordered the government to respond by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
The government did not meet that deadline, and Judge Farbiarz said that Mr. Khalil could have a single meeting with his wife and lawyers before 10:30 Thursday morning. The order did not mention the baby.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region for The Times. He is focused on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area’s federal and state courts.
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