by Admin
21/6/2025
Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student and a leading voice in pro-Palestinian campus protests was released on Friday from a federal immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, after spending over three months in custody.
Khalil, a legal U.S. permanent resident married to an American citizen and father to a U.S.-born son, had been detained since March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), facing possible deportation.
Speaking to the media shortly after his release, Khalil, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, criticized the Trump administration’s handling of his case.
“This shouldn’t have taken three months,” he said. “There’s no right person to detain for protesting genocide. And they picked the wrong one.”
At 30 years old, Khalil had emerged as a prominent spokesperson and negotiator for the student-led protest encampment at Columbia University, which aimed to draw attention to the war in Gaza.
The university invited the police to clear the site after some protesters occupied an administration building, Khalil was neither involved in the occupation nor charged with any crimes in connection with the demonstrations.
Despite this, his arrest and subsequent transfer to a detention facility nearly 2,000 kilometers from New York became a flashpoint in the broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian student activism.
His case drew national attention and became symbolic of what critics say is a government effort to silence dissent under the guise of national security.
In a statement Friday, the Department of Homeland Security slammed the decision by District Judge Michael Farbiarz to release Khalil, calling it a dangerous example of judicial overreach that “undermines national security.”
Khalil remains under tight restrictions. He is barred from leaving the country except for voluntary departure and faces limits on his domestic travel.
Khalil’s wife, Michigan-born dentist Noor Abdalla, welcomed the ruling. “Our family can finally breathe a sigh of relief,” she said.
“But this decision doesn’t erase the trauma or the injustice. My husband was detained for peacefully protesting, and I gave birth to our son while he was locked away.”
Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, was arrested on March 8.
His detention came amid a wider wave of immigration enforcement actions targeting foreign students engaged in pro-Palestinian activism.
Some students have reported having their visas revoked for minor crimes or even for publishing opinion articles critical of U.S. foreign policy.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended the crackdown, citing a Cold War-era law that grants the government broad authority to deport non-citizens deemed hostile to U.S. interests.
Rubio argued that constitutional free speech protections don’t extend to foreign nationals and insisted he could make such determinations without court review.
Civil liberties advocates, however, warn that Khalil’s case sets a dangerous precedent for political repression and raises serious questions about freedom of expression and due process in the United States.