Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist being held in an immigration detention center in Louisiana, are fighting to have the case heard in New Jersey.

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.

A federal court in Newark will determine whether the United States can deport Mahmoud Khalil in what could be a landmark case on civil rights.

Baher Azmy, Mahmoud Khalil's attorney and the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said on Friday (March 28) the moves by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump against Khalil were 'dangerous.

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.

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,