Pro-Palestine activist and Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil has finally been released from ICE custody on June 20 – following over three months of detention. He was forced to languish in ICE detention over 1,000 miles away from his wife, Noor Abdalla, with immigration authorities denying his request to be by Abdalla’s side for the birth of their first child.
Upon release from the GEO Group-run ICE detention center, Khalil briefly addressed reporters. “Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this,” Khalil said. But no one “should be detained for actually protesting a genocide, for protesting their university, Columbia University, that is investing in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” he told reporters.
Describing his 104 days in detention, Khalil remarked, “The moment you enter that facility your rights leave you behind, once you enter there, you see a different reality, a different reality about the country that supposedly champions human rights and liberty and justice.”
He also spoke about the ongoing movement for immigrant rights, stating: “The hundreds of men who I left behind me shouldn’t be there in the first place. The Trump administration is doing its best to dehumanize everyone here, whether you are a US citizen, an immigrant, or just a person on this land does not mean that you are less of a human.”
“No one is illegal, no human is illegal, that’s the message,” he added. “Justice will prevail no matter what this administration may try to portray, portraying that immigrants are criminals or any of that… this simply is not true.”
Khalil was released following an order by Judge Michael E. Farbiarz of the Federal District Court in Newark, who said he had been persuaded that Khalil’s detention was a violation of his free speech rights.
“There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil,” said Farbiarz during a two-hour hearing on Friday. “And of course that would be unconstitutional.”
“After more than three months, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,” said Khalil’s wife Noor Abdalla.
“We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians. But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.”
“By ordering Mr. Khalil freed today, the court vindicates not only his rights but also recognized what has been plain to everyone, the government has detained Mr. Khalil to punish him for his speech in defense of Palestinians,” said Ramzi Kassem, professor of law at the City University of New York and Co-Director of CLEAR, a legal non-profit and clinic that has been a part of Khalil’s legal defense.
Khalil was first arrested on March 8 by plainclothes, masked ICE agents outside of his home, in front of his pregnant wife. Khalil was never accused of any crime, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in a short memo that his presence in the United States “has potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest.”
Khalil’s supporters denounced his arrest and detention as a violation of free speech based on his activism for the Palestinian cause. Khalil was a student leader at the Columbia University Gaza Solidarity Encampment, participating in negotiations with Columbia’s administration seeking to divest the institution from companies bankrolling Israeli genocide.
Khalil’s detention led to a mass movement calling for his release, which included rallies in New York City, outside of the federal courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, and Jena, Louisiana where he was being held. Khalil’s fellow Columbia students also joined the movement for his release, staging several protests including a dramatic civil disobedience action in April, in which Jewish students chained themselves to Columbia’s gates, demanding the name of the university trustee who reported Khalil to ICE.
