Pro-Palestinian student activist arrested by ICE releases statement

The Columbia University activist, arrested by federal immigration authorities and facing possible deportation over his alleged support for Hamas, has released a statement from inside the detention facility where he is being held.

Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old green card holder who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on March 8. 

In a letter released by his attorneys on Tuesday, Khalil characterized his arrest as “indicative of anti-Palestinian racism.” He also blamed Columbia’s administration, including former university President Minouche Shafik, who was criticized for failing to adequately respond to allegations of antisemitic behavior from activists on campus before she ultimately stepped down.

“My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the U.S. has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention,” Khalil wrote. “For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted.”

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Khalil, who played a major role in the anti-Israel protests at Columbia, is fighting against his deportation in the courts. Not long after he was arrested, a judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting him. 

In one of the first legal victories for Khalil, a judge on Wednesday ordered his deportation case be heard in New Jersey, not Louisiana, where he is being held. The judge cited a law that required the case be held in the same jurisdiction where Khalil’s attorneys first filed a lawsuit to challenge his detention. 

The Trump administration previously said there was a bedbug infestation at the detention facility in New Jersey, near Khalil’s arrest, leading them to have to ship him to Louisiana.

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“While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University,” Khalil wrote in his letter. “Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns – based on racism and disinformation – to go unchecked.”

Khalil said his arrest was both a direct affront to his First Amendment rights and a broader attempt by the Trump administration to “suppress dissent.” He wrote that “in the weeks ahead” students, activists and elected officials “must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine.”

“I have always believed that my duty is not only to liberate myself from the oppressor, but also to liberate my oppressors from their hatred and fear.”