Mahmoud Khalil speaks out on the one year anniversary of his arrest by ICE.
Mahmoud Khalil speaking outside the gates of Columbia University, one year after his detention during campus protests.(Courtesy: Darius Osborne)
Over 50 protesters rallied with Mahmoud Khalil outside Columbia University on Monday to mark a year after his illegal detention by ICE.
“I’m here with a very heavy heart next to an institution…a fortified fortress, that did everything in its power to silence and disappear me as well as any Pro-Palestinian voice,” Khalil told supporters. “They don’t want anyone to speak for human rights”.
The Palestinian-Algerian graduate student activist, writer, and former UK government employee now lives life under government surveillance while his case is pending federal appeals..
Khalil is facing two separate cases, one in federal court for his accusations of habeas corpus (Khalil vs. Trump), as well as another in immigration court for deportation over allegations of “misrepresented information” submitted on his work for the United Nations abroad.
His team has filed an appeal to the Board of Immigration, and are currently preparing to “ask the Third Circuit to review the federal court decision for the end of this month.”. The Trump Administration is not lawfully able to re-detain Khalil as he submits his case for further review.
Baher Azmy, Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, in a recent brief with reporters last week said what was at stake with the Third Circuit decision - which said Mahmoud’s constitutional claim ought to be heard by the Immigration Court - and why his team is petitioning for a second hearing.
“What is clear here in multiple court proceedings is that the United States governement in collaboration with bad faith actors, anti-Palestinian groups developed early on a plan to attack Palestinians - pro-Palestinian non-citizen protesters, specificall, especially in order to silence the kind of burgeoning movement for Palestinian rights and opposition to the US and Israeli policy, and the onslaught in Gaza,” said Azmy.
Azmy said this expansion of executive powers was dangerous because it avoids the critical constitutional question which is can the executive branch criminally punish, arrest, detain and deport people simply because they disagree with or dissent with the US government policy.
At the rally, protesters remembered all the others detained and censored by the University, including Leqaa Kordia, a Muslim Palestinian woman held in immigration detention since March 13, 2023. Kordia had taken part in multiple protests across the tri-state area, having lost around 175 family members to the violence in Gaza. Kordia sent a statement from detention that was read aloud at the rally, it said: “ Stay bold, stay loud, stay unshakable, stay safe…love Leqaa Kordia.”
We will continue to follow Khalil’s federal and immigration cases.
