The Trump administration blew a Friday morning deadline to challenge Mahmoud Khalil’s release from the Louisiana detention center where he’s been held since March, prompting lawyers for the

The judge gave Trump's government until 1:30 p.m. Friday to formally reply to the latest request to free Khalil.

The judge is staying his injunction until Friday to allow the Department of Homeland Security time to appeal the decision.

"This vindicates what Mahmoud has maintained since day one — that the government cannot detain or deport him based on Rubio’s say-so," Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for Khalil and a law professor at the City University of New York, said in a statement.