Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, in his first public statement after his arrest by US federal immigration agents earlier this month, stated that the government action was a direct consequence of him exercising his right to free speech and called on the world to persist in the struggle for the freedom of Palestine.
"My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as l advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January's ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom," Khalil said.
In a five-page letter dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention centre in Louisiana, the 30-year-old undergraduate student at Columbia University called himself a political prisoner and highlighted the inhumane conditions the detained immigrants in the US are subjected to.
"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.
Who has the right to have rights? 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," Khalil stated.
"Justice escapes the contours of this nation's immigration facilities," he added.
Khalil, one of the key organisers of pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia University was picked up by the US federal immigration agents on March 8, while he was returning home from a dinner with his eight-month-pregnant wife Noor Abdalla. According to Khalil's lawyers, he was handcuffed, shackled and subjected to inhumane treatments while being transported to multiple detention centres.
The video of the arrest went viral on social media with thousands of Americans demanding the revocation of his arrest. Khalil held permanent residency at the time of his arrest.
Narrating the events of the day of his arrest, Khalil explained that he was concerned for his pregnant wife Noor, with whom he is expecting their first child in April.
"At that moment, my only concern was for Noor's safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side. DHS would not tell me anything for hours — I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation. At 26 Federal Plaza, I slept on the cold floor. In the early morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I slept on the ground and was refused a blanket despite my request," Khalil described.
Khalil further stated that he has been targeted by both Biden and Trump regimes for his Palestinian ethnicity.
"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 U.S. has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention. For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted."
Drawing parallels between the US and Israeli regimes, Khalil emphasised that "being Palestinian is an experience that transcends borders."
"I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel's use of administrative detention - imprisonment without trial or charge - to strip Palestinians of their rights. I think of our friend Omar Khatib, who was incarcerated without charge or trial by Israel as he returned home from travel. I think of Gaza hospital director and pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was taken captive by the Israeli military on December 27 and remains in an Israeli torture camp today. For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace," Khalil said.
"I have always believed that my duty is not only to liberate myself from the oppressor, but also to liberate my oppressors from their hatred and fear," he added.
Khalil also accused Columbia University of siding with the Trump administration and targeting its students.
"While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns - based on racism and disinformation - to go unchecked," he said.
Columbia University, which became one of the prominent centres of pro-Palestine student protests amid Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, initiated a flurry of disciplinary actions against its students over their position against Israel.
"Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration's latest threats. My arrest, the expulsion or suspension of at least 22 Columbia students - some stripped of their B.A. degrees just weeks before graduation - and the expulsion of SWC President Grant Miner on the eve of contract negotiations, are clear examples," Khalil noted in his statement.
However, Khalil also expressed hope in the power of student activism, highlighting its potential to steer a society towards truth and justice.
"If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation. Students have long been at the forefront of change - leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the civil rights movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice," he said.
Reiterating that he is being targeted as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent and warning of more such politically motivated arrests, Khalil called on Americans to persist in their protests for 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," Khalil added.
