The question seemed small, even inconsequential. Several weeks ago, the federal judge in Newark, hearing early arguments in the messy deportation case of a Columbia University student accused of leading pro-Palestinian campus protests, wanted to know who was in charge of the immigration detention jail in Louisiana where the student was being held.

Were federal prison authorities running the place? Or had the job been turned over to a private prison contractor — a common practice at many U.S. immigration detention centers?

Sitting behind a bench in one of the high-ceilinged, wood-paneled federal courtrooms in Newark that seemed designed to communicate seriousness and importance, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz looked across the courtroom as he asked the question, his gaze settling on two attorneys who had been dispatched to Newark by the Trump administration’s Justice Department to argue the case. The attorneys turned to each other and whispered, then looked back to the judge. Neither knew whether federal workers or a private contractor ran the detention center. The judge glared for a second or two, doing his best to mask his incredulity that neither attorney — representing the U.S. Justice Department, no less — knew the answer to what seemed like one of those foundational facts of a legal argument about whether someone should be imprisoned or not before being deported.

The judge then told the attorneys he wanted an answer in writing on his desk by the end of the day. 

“Just one sentence,” he said, exasperated.

This brief back-and-forth will likely amount to no more than a footnote in the complicated deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp 29 years ago and granted legal residency in the United States — a green card — to study at Columbia University in New York City for a master's degree in public administration. But, in a larger sense, the moment illustrates how ham-handed the Trump administration has been in its efforts to deport noncitizens.

For the record: Since his arrest on March 8, Khalil has been held most of the time at an immigration detention center in Louisiana that is operated by The GEO Group, a private company that runs numerous prisons across America and has been accused of improper treatment of inmates. A quick check on Google will explain that. But somehow Trump's Justice Department attorneys never bothered to look.

Khalil was a prominent face during last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, which included a tent encampment in the center of the campus, a building takeover that resulted in vandalism, and claims by Jewish students that they were regularly targeted for antisemitism as they tried to walk to class.

Khalil has claimed he was just a negotiator for the various pro-Palestinian groups at Columbia. But video footage suggested a different story. He was depicted as not only participating in the protests but appearing to lead some of them — including a recent demonstration at Columbia’s Barnard College that included protesters briefly taking over a building. Perhaps even more alarming was the fact that the Columbia protest movement had used rhetoric — “death to America” was one chant — and tactics that had been allegedly promoted in messages to the Columbia........

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