Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, said he also will speak up for the immigrants he left behind in the detention center.
In JENA, La. – An activist from Palestine, who was held in custody for over three months, returned home to a warm reception from supporters as he pushed his baby son’s stroller with one hand and raised his fist in the air with the other.
Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student from Columbia University and a prominent figure in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on campus demonstrations, was greeted by friends at Newark International Airport in New Jersey on Saturday, just a day after being released from a federal immigration center in Louisiana. Khalil expressed his determination to keep protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
He stated, “The U.S. government is financially supporting this act of mass killing, while Columbia University is making investments in the same. This is why I will persist in protesting alongside all of you. I will speak out for Palestine, even if faced with threats of imprisonment. I will continue to do so, even if it means risking my life for the cause.”
Khalil, a legal U.S. resident whose wife gave birth during his 104 days of detention, said he also will speak up for the immigrants he left behind in the detention center.
“Whether you are a citizen, an immigrant, anyone in this land, you’re not illegal. That doesn’t make you less of a human,” he said.
The 30-year-old international affairs student wasn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. However, the government has said noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the U.S. for expressing views the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Khalil was released after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue detaining a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of any violence. The government filed notice Friday evening that it is appealing Khalil’s release.
Joining Khalil at the airport, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said his detention violated the First Amendment and was “an affront to every American.”
“He has been accused, baselessly, of horrific allegations simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech,” she said.
“The Trump administration knows that they are waging a losing legal battle,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “They are violating the law, and they know that they are violating the law.”
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