DETAINED Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was allowed to hold his one-month-old son for the first time on Thursday after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to keep the father and infant separated by a glass barrier.

Mr Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia University graduate, has been detained in a Louisiana jail since March 8.

Mr Khalil was the first person arrested under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters.

Federal authorities have not accused Mr Khalil of a crime, but they have sought to deport him on the basis that his prominent role in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza may have undermined US foreign policy interests.

His request to attend his son’s April 21 birth was denied last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The question of whether Mr Khalil would be permitted to hold his newborn child or forced to meet him through a barrier had sparked days of legal fighting, triggering claims by Mr Khalil’s lawyers that he is being subject to political retaliation by the government.

In their legal submissions, Mr Khalil’s legal team described the refusal to grant the visit as ”further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr Khalil’s arrest and faraway detention,” saying that his wife and son were ”the farthest thing from a security risk.”