A federal judge has ruled that the legal battle over Mahmoud Khalil's deportation should continue to play out in New Jersey, rejecting the Trump administration's bid to transfer the Columbia University protester's case to Louisiana.

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 there.