NEWARK, N.J. >> Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, urged a federal judge on Friday to free their client from an immigration detention center in Louisiana, describing his imprisonment there as a “Kafkaesque” ploy to chill free speech.

“The longer we wait, the more chill there is,” defense attorney Baher Azmy said. “Everyone knows about this case and is wondering if they’re going to get picked off the street for opposing U.S. foreign policy.”

The parties appeared Friday morning before a judge in Newark, New Jersey, to debate where Khalil’s legal fight to be released from federal custody should play out.

An attorney for the Department of Justice, August Flentje, wants the dispute litigated in Louisiana, where Khalil was taken after his arrest, “for jurisdictional certainty.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said he would consider the “tricky” venue issues at play and issue a written decision soon. He declined to hear an argument for bail from Khalil’s attorneys, pointing to the need to settle the jurisdictional issue first.

Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdallah, an American citizen, sat in the front row.