NEW YORK: The US government said on Friday pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil would remain in detention after a judge ruled foreign policy interests could not be used to justify confinement of the Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist.

Khalil`s lawyers had called for his immediate release, but attorneys said in a letter to the judge that they would keep holding him on other charges such as immigration fraud that were not addressed in the decision. The government has been trying to deport Khalil and has been holding him in Louisiana.

Newark, New Jersey-based judge Michael Farbiarz had given the government until 1730 GMT on Friday to appeal his Wednesday ruling on Khalil, 30, a Palestinian who came to the US lawfully on a student visa and later obtained lawful permanent residency.

President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations that swept Columbia in the wake of the Hamas raid of Oct 7, 2023. Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel, was detained by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8.

-Reuters