NEW YORK, June 20 (Xinhua) -- A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to release pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil from immigration custody on bail.

Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, had been held for three months in a Louisiana detention facility after being detained in March in the lobby of his university-owned apartment building in New York City. The Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. He was the only high-profile pro-Palestinian demonstrator in the United States who remained in custody.

The judge, Michael Farbiarz of Federal District Court in Newark, said during a two-hour hearing that it would be "highly, highly unusual" for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn't been accused of any violence.

"There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil," he said. "And of course that would be unconstitutional."

Farbiarz declined a government request to put a seven-day stay on his order to give the government more time to possibly fight it.

Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer of New Jersey ordered Khalil to "surrender his passport and any other travel documents to the Government as a precondition of release."

Hammer also ordered Khalil to limit his travel to New York, where he lives; Michigan, where he has family; New Jersey, where Judge Farbiarz is based; Louisiana, the location of his immigration case; and Washington, D.C., for congressional visits and lobbying efforts.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said Judge Farbiarz did not have the authority to direct Mr. Khalil's release.

"An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained," McLaughlin said. "On the same day an immigration judge denied Khalil bond and ordered him removed, one rogue district judge ordered him released. This is yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security."

Khalil is one of the most high-profile pro-Palestinian targets of the current administration. After his arrest in March, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, calling him a "Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student" and said, "This is the first arrest of many to come."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said Khalil must be deported from the country. He cited a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which allows the secretary of state to order someone's removal if their activities or presence are believed to threaten U.S. foreign policy interests.

Prosecutors said Khalil was being held for a different reason, alleging that he had omitted information from his application for permanent residency.

Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House, said the administration would appeal.

"There is no basis for a local federal judge in New Jersey -- who lacks jurisdiction -- to order Khalil's release from a detention facility in Louisiana," Jackson said. "We expect to be vindicated on appeal, and look forward to removing Khalil from the United States." ■