A federal judge says the Trump administration can continue to detain Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil on allegations that he lied on his green card application.

The Trump administration says it will continue hold Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil in custody on new grounds after a judge initially ruled he should be released.

A judge says the Trump administration can detain Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil for allegedly lying on his green card application — after ruling he can't be jailed for foreign policy reasons.

Mahmoud Khalil’s hopes of being freed on bond as he continues fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him were dashed Friday, despite a judge saying the government could no longer hold Khalil on the premise that his presence in the country is against the national interest.

Mahmoud Khalil was denied release on Friday by a judge who, earlier in the week, had rejected the Trump administration’s main legal basis for seeking to deport and detain the pro-Palestinian activist.

A federal judge on Friday sided with the Trump administration in the ongoing legal fight over the detention of Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. In a less than two-page order,

The judge said he could not be detained as a threat to US foreign policy, but then the government said he was in custody for another reason.