Khalil filed a lawsuit, also known as a habeas petition, protesting his detention in New York. A New York judge previously ordered the case to continue in New Jersey because Khalil’s attorneys filed the petition while he was detained in New Jersey.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, urged a federal judge on Friday to move their client’s case out of Louisiana, describing his imprisonment there as a “Kafkaesque” ploy to chill free speech.

Mahmoud Khalil's attorneys said they were prepared to argue for his release, but Judge Michael Fabiarz said, "I'm not going to handle any motion until I decide this is the court with the power to decide it.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and legal U.S. resident, is fighting deportation after being detained by immigration officials over his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests.

In this NY News Update, we look at Mahmoud Khalil fighting his deportation in a court in New Jersey, along with a DNA expert testifying in the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer case targeting Rex Heuermann.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky reports on the legal showdown between the Justice Department and lawyers for a detained Columbia University graduate.

The government wants the detainee’s case heard in Louisiana, where an appellate judge may be friendlier. At a hearing in Newark, one of his lawyers called the situation “Kafkaesque.”

Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil will remain behind bars in Louisiana at least until a U.S. judge decides whether the Palestinian activist should challenge his imprisonment in a federal court there or in New Jersey.

As U.S. authorities crack down on immigrants at universities in a fervor against pro-Palestinian protests, they quickly have shuttled some of those detained to remote facilities in Louisiana. Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil,