A federal judge has decreed that Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia University protest leader, cannot be detained or deported and set the stage for him to go free as early as Friday.

Khalil was the first leader of last year’s anti-Israel student protests to be arrested under the Trump administration’s push to deport non-citizens who they said fueled antisemitism on campuses.

Others have already been released on court orders after multiple federal judges ruled that the administration had violated the students’ rights by detaining them despite not accusing them of crimes.