When attorneys for Mahmoud Khalil enter a courthouse on Wednesday, they will have one mission in mind: to get their client, a Palestinian activist, released.

A New York federal judge is set to hear pivotal questions in the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of large Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia University who now faces deportation after his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The arrest of a Palestinian activist who helped organize campus protests of the war in Gaza has sparked questions about whether foreign students and green card holders are protected against being deported from the U.