Mahmoud KhalilA new graduate of Columbia University and a propalestinian activist who was arrested by US immigration authorities 11 days ago, for the first time since his arrest, a detention center in Jena, Louisiana.
In A Explanation to the GuardianKhalil said he was “a political prisoner … testimony of the silent injustices against many people who were excluded from the protection of the law.”
In his remarks you can read in fullKhalil accused the Trump government of having staged him “as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent”, and added that “visa holders, green card airlines and citizens will be alike to their political beliefs”.
Khalil, a constant American US resident and to Noor Abdalla, an American citizen, was married on March 8 in New York from the US immigration and customs authority (ICE) because of the role he played in the propalestinic protests of the last spring on the site of the Columbia University.
Khalil says that the agents who arrested him “refused to ensure an arrest warrant” before he threatened the deportation and would revoke his Green Card.
“At that moment my only concern about Noors was security,” he said. “I had no idea whether it would be taken because the agents had threatened to arrest them because they hadn’t left my site.”
After his arrest, Khalil was brought to a posture system in New Jersey before he was flown to Louisiana, where he stays.
On Tuesday, from his cell, detailed Khalil in custody and asked the basics of US law.
“Who has the right to have rights?” he asked. “It is certainly not the people who are pushed into the cells here. It is not the Senegalese man I have met and who has withdrawn his freedom for a year.
“Justice escapes the contours of the immigration facilities of this nation,” added Khalil.
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He condemned American foreign policy to condemn the caning for the pressure of the federal government, the student demonstrators and the recent break of a fragile ceasefire of Israel.
“My arrest was a direct consequence of the exercise of my right to freedom of expression when I campaigned for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which was resumed on Monday evening in full power,” he said, adding that it was “our moral imperative in the fight for her complete freedom”.
In the days after Khalil’s detention, his release grew. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York City and demanded his freedom.
People gather outside of a New York court to protest against the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil on March 12, 2025 (photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images).
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
On March 10, the efforts to deport Khalil were blocked by federal judge Jesse Furman, who asked for lawyers for both parties to submit further arguments.
On Friday, legal representatives of the government demanded that Khalil’s case be rejected or transferred to Louisiana.
On Wednesday, Furman refused to ask the government’s inquiries to move his case to Louisiana and ordered Khalil Stay in the United States for now.
Furman moved Khalil’s case from New York to New Jersey and argued that he was not responsible for monitoring it because Khalil was captured in New Jersey when his lawyers for the first time because of his participation in the demonstrations of the past year.
Khalil did not take part in the university’s camps because they feared that they would lose his student visa, but he often spoke to the press and was commissioned to maintain the interests of student activists during the discussion with the university about the conditions to terminate the protests.
The student of Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil (center), speaks to the press during a press conference organized by Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, which was set up a new camp on the Morningide Height Idish Campus of the Columbia University on June 1, 2024.
Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
During this time, he claimed to preserve both the interests of the Jewish people and the Palestinians.
After an increase in anti-Semitism on campus, Khalil told CNN last spring: “I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people is intertwined and can not reach hand-hand hand and cannot reach them without the other.”
A year later, Khalil’s detention marks the first on a nationwide hunting for university students who take part in demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas conflict, which was further complicated by the government’s pressure on educational institutions in order to suffocate student activism.
In a recently adopted social mail in the truth, US President Donald Trump referred to those who agree with the Palestinian thing as “terrorist sympathizers”, and declared that they no longer had the right to stay in the USA and added that his government would not be captured, recorded and deported again. “
In the meantime, the government will reduce funding to American universities that do not withdraw its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
On Friday, the US Education Ministry published a list of 45 universities Investigation for the “use of racial preferences and stereotypes in educational programs and activities”.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration held a state grant of $ 175 million to the University of Pennsylvania on its policy to participate in transgender athletes.
In a similar way, John’s Hopkins University announced on Friday Thousands of layoffs in 44 countries and the handling of its USAID Grant-related activities in Baltimore and International after lost $ 800 million in public health financing from the US Agency for International Development.
– With files from Reuters
& Copy 2025 Global News, Department of Corus Entertainment Inc.
