Columbia University graduate, who Trump administration is seeking to deport over role in pro-Palestinian protests, speaks out for first time since arrest.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who the United States government is seeking to deport for his role in pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year, has called himself a “political prisoner” in his first direct comments since his arrest.
The student activist was arrested on March 8 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after he and his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla – a US citizen – returned from a dinner in New York.
In a letter made public on Tuesday, Khalil decried his arrest and the conditions facing detainees in US immigration facilities.
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana, where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law,” Khalil wrote. He added that “the agents threatened to arrest her [Noor] for not leaving my side”.
He was taken into custody without a warrant, and the DHS agents withheld details about his arrest, according to footage of the arrest that was made public by his family last Friday.
In his letter, Khalil wrote, “DHS would not tell me anything … I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation.”
His lawyer, Amy Greer, said Khalil is a lawful permanent US resident. Experts have underscored it is rare for green card holders to be threatened with deportation, except in cases of serious crimes.
In April 2024, students across the US mobilised to demand an end to their universities’ complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza, which followed an attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Israel in October 2023 in which an estimated 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 taken captive.
Since then, Israel’s relentless ground, air and sea military campaign has killed nearly 50,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 110,000 others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Thousands more are missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings and presumed dead. A United Nations committee found in November last year that Israel’s warfare in the besieged territory is consistent with the characteristics of genocide and accused it of “using starvation as a method of war”.
Trump’s fierce reaction
As anti-war protests grew nationwide, demonstrations at New York’s Columbia University drew particularly close media attention owing to their size.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has accused Khalil, who played a key role in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the university, of engaging in “activities aligned with Hamas”, though no evidence has been provided.
Trump has accused the student protesters of participating in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”, without offering evidence to support the claims.
Khalil said his arrest was a direct result of his activism for a free Palestine and an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza.
“My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night,” he wrote in the letter.
Khalil also drew parallels between his situation and the use of administrative detention by Israel, where Palestinians are often imprisoned without trial or charge.
“For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace.”
He said he refused to be forced into silence, adding “it is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom”.
“I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”