May 29 (UPI) -- A federal judge in New Jersey ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration's efforts to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil are most likely unconstitutional but did not set him free from custody.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote that Khalil, who was arrested in March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the intention of eventual deportation, was likely to win his case "on his vagueness challenge related to the Secretary of State's determination."
Khalil's legal team argued on his behalf that the reasons to detain him violated the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause, due to unconstitutional vagueness. According to Farbiarz's ruling, vagueness doctrine requires a law be clear enough that people understand the consequence should it be broken, and to block the use of laws that are so broad they bend the separation of governmental powers.
In his conclusion, Farbiarz wrote that Khalil is "likely to succeed on the merits of his claim that Section 1227 is unconstitutional as applied to him," with Section 1227 being federal code for what makes a person a "deportable alien."
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