Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist detained in the United States pending his deportation, missed the birth of his son after being denied temporary release to attend, his wife Noor Abdalla said in a statement.
On Monday, Abdalla gave birth to the couple’s first child in New York without Khalil present after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement made the “purposeful decision” to make her family suffer.
Khalil, 30, was arrested March 8 at the university-owned apartment building in New York City where he lives with his wife. The Columbia University graduate student, who led pro-Palestinian protests there last year, was detained after Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Khalil had engaged in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which foster a hostile environment for Jewish students in the U.S.”
Earlier this month, a Louisiana immigration judge ruled that Khalil can be deported. Khalil’s arrest was the first of Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists who took part in encampment protests across the US over the Gaza genocide.
“Mahmoud remains unjustly detained in an ICE detention center over 1,000 miles away from his firstborn child. My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom,” Abdalla said in a statement.
“I will continue to fight every day for Mahmoud to come home to us. I know when Mahmoud is freed, he will show our son how to be brave, thoughtful, and compassionate, just like his dad.”
