Khalil, a permanent US resident, was arrested on 8 March in New York by federal immigration authorities who reportedly claimed they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card [Getty]
Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil has made his first public statement since being detained by US immigration authorities, describing himself as a “political prisoner” targeted for his activism in support of Palestine.
Khalil, a permanent US resident, was arrested on 8 March in New York by federal immigration authorities who reportedly claimed they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card.
His detention has sparked outrage among rights groups and free expression advocates, who view the move as politically motivated.
“I am a political prisoner,” Khalil said in his first public statement, given to The Guardian.
“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, who played a prominent role in leading Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last spring, claimed the Trump administration was deliberately targeting him as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.
“The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent,” Khalil said. “Visa-holders, green-card carriers and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs.”
Khalil was detained in front of his wife, Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant with their first child. He said agents refused to provide a warrant before forcing him into an unmarked car.
“At that moment, my only concern was for Noor’s safety,” Khalil said. “I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side.”
Following his arrest, Khalil was held at an ICE facility in New Jersey before being transferred more than 1,400 miles away to a detention centre in Jena, Louisiana. He said he spent his first night there sleeping on the floor without a blanket.
In his statement, Khalil described dire conditions inside the detention centre, comparing his experience to Israel’s practice of administrative detention, where Palestinians are imprisoned without trial or charge.
“Who has the right to have rights?” Khalil asked. “It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing.”
He continued: “Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.”
Khalil said his experience reflects Israel’s broader oppression of Palestinians.
“I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention – imprisonment without trial or charge – to strip Palestinians of their rights,” he said.
Khalil also highlighted the case of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, a Gaza hospital director and paediatrician who was detained by Israeli forces in December and remains imprisoned in what Khalil called an “Israeli torture camp”.
His arrest has triggered protests and condemnation from rights groups, who accuse the Trump administration of unlawfully retaliating against Khalil for his activism.
Diala Shamas, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and part of Khalil’s legal team, warned that Khalil’s case marks the start of a dangerous trend.
“The Trump administration has clearly signalled that this is their test case, their opening shot, the first of many more to come,” Shamas said.
“And for that test case, they chose an intrepid and deeply principled organiser who is beloved and trusted in his community,” Shamas added.
Khalil’s attorneys are currently fighting in a New York court to have him returned to New York and released from detention. A federal judge has temporarily blocked his deportation while the legal challenge continues.
In his statement, Khalil criticised Columbia University, accusing the institution of paving the way for his detention.
“Columbia laid the groundwork for the US 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.
He condemned the Biden administration for continuing to provide military support to Israel during its attacks on Gaza, which Khalil described as genocide.
“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 US has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevent international intervention,” he said.
Khalil concluded his statement by urging students and activists to continue speaking out in support of Palestine.
“In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all,” he said.
“Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
