Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestine activist, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities 11 days ago and has been published in a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana since his arrest.
Khalil said in a statement to the Guardian that he was a “political prisoner… witnessing the quiet injustice against many who exclude many from the protection of the law.”
Khalil in his speech, you can read it in full, accusing the Trump administration of “as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent,” adding: “Visa holders, green card carriers and citizens will all be targets of their political beliefs.”
Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident, married U.S. citizen Noor Abdalla, was detained in New York on March 8 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for his role in the Pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last spring.
Khalil said that the agents who arrested him “refuse to provide a warrant” before threatening to deport and revoke his green card.
“At that moment, the only thing I care about was Noel's safety.” “I don't know if she would be taken away as agents threatened to arrest her without leaving me.”
After his arrest, Harrier was transferred to a New Jersey possession facility and was then flew to Louisiana.
On Tuesday, Khalil detailed his experience in detention from his cell and asked about the fundamentals of U.S. law.
“Who has the right to have the right?” he asked. “Of course, this is not the human crowded in the cell here. This is not the Senegalese I met, who was deprived of his freedom for a year, and his legal situation in limbo and his family was another ocean. The 21-year-old detainee I met met, who was nine years old in this country, was expelled a lot when he was only nine years old, but he continued to be expelled a lot of voices,” he continued to be heard. ”
Khalil added: “Justice escaped the outline of the immigration facilities in this country.”
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He continues to condemn U.S. foreign policy, Columbia University’s pressure to condemn student protesters and Israel’s recent undermining of a fragile ceasefire.
“My arrest is a direct consequence of the exercise of the right to freedom of speech, as I advocate for free Palestine and end the genocide in Gaza, which was restored with all efforts on Monday night,” he said, adding, “We must morally uphold our struggle for total freedom.”
In the days after Khalil was detained, calls for his release were intensified. Hundreds of protesters gathered in New York City to demand his freedom.
People gather outside New York City Court to protest the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil on March 12, 2025.
Michael San Diego/Getty Images
On March 10, federal judge Jesse Furman blocked efforts to expel Khalil, who asked lawyers on both sides to make further arguments.
On Friday, the government's legal representative asked Khalil's case to be dismissed or transferred to Louisiana.
Furman on Wednesday rejected a request from a government lawyer to move his case to Louisiana and ordered Khalil to stay in the United States.
Furman moved Khalil's case from New York to New Jersey, deeming he had no jurisdiction to oversee it because Khalil was detained in New Jersey when his attorney first arrested him for his involvement in last year's demonstration.
Khalil was not worried about losing his student visa to attend the university camp, but he talked regularly to the media and was responsible for sticking to the interests of student activists when discussing conditions with the university regarding ending the protests.
Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil (Center) was in a press conference organized by professional Palestinian protesters who set up a new camp on the Morningside Heights campus in Columbia University in New York City on June 1, 2024.
Selcuk acar/anadolu by Getty Image)
During this time, he insisted on preserving the interests of Jews and Palestinians.
After an uplift of anti-Semitism on campus, Khalil told CNN last spring: “I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jews is intertwined and hand-woven, and you won’t be able to achieve without another.”
A year later, Khalil's detention marked the first hunt nationwide, where they participated in college students who opposed the Israel-Hamas clash demonstrations, complicating the government's pressure on educational institutions to stifle student activism.
In recent Truth-Social Posts, U.S. President Donald Trump calls those who are aligned with the Palestinian cause “terrorist sympathizers”, declaring that they no longer have the right to stay in the United States, adding that his administration will “find, arrest and expel sympathizers of these terrorists and return from our country.”
Meanwhile, the government is cutting funding to American universities that do not deprive it of its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education released a list of 45 universities under investigation to “use racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities.”
On Wednesday, the Trump administration suspended $175 million in government grants over its policy on participation of trans athletes.
Similarly, on Friday, Johns Hopkins University announced thousands of layoffs in 44 countries and landed in Baltimore’s activities with the U.S. Agency for International Development lost $800 million in public health funding.
– Documents with Reuters
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
