(NEW YORK) — Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil landed at Newark Airport on Saturday, one day after a federal judge ordered his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
Despite being held in detention for over three months, Khalil vowed to continue advocating for Palestinian rights.
“Even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,” he said.
Khalil also thanked those who have supported him during his months-long detention.
“Thank you so much for everything, not only for today, just for every day. Your words of support, your messages, have kept me going,” Khalil said.
Khalil, a green card holder who is married to an American citizen, has been held in a Louisiana detention facility since he was arrested by ICE agents in New York City in March. His son was born while he was in custody.
The ruling came at the same time an immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana, denied Khalil’s request for asylum and ordered him to remain detained — but U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz’s order supersedes that.
When asked Saturday what his message to the Trump administration was, Khalil answered, “The fact that all these attempts to suppress pro-Palestine voices have failed now — My existence is a message. The Palestinian existence is a message to this administration.”
“Whether you are a citizen, an immigrant, anyone on this land, you’re not illegal,” he said. “That doesn’t make you less of a human. And this is what the administration is trying to do to dehumanize me, to dehumanize the immigrants, to dehumanize anyone who actually does not agree with what the administration is doing.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez welcomed Khalil home to New York, at a press conference Saturday.
“Mahmoud Khalil was imprisoned for 104 days by this administration, by the Trump administration, with no grounds and for political reasons, because Mahmoud Khalil is an advocate for Palestinian human rights. He has been accused baselessly of horrific allegations simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“The Trump administration knows that they are waging a losing legal battle,” she said. “They are violating the law, and they know that they are violating the law, and they are trying to use these one-off examples to intimidate everyone else from not going to school, from not using their speech, et cetera. And so we hope we’ve seen that a judge has tossed out their actions, not just once, but twice, and we hope to continue to advocate for the administration to follow the law, frankly.”
Trump administration officials have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas — a claim his legal team has disputed. A memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Khalil’s presence in the U.S. “would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”
The decision to release Khalil was sharply criticized by the administration.
“An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement posted online. “On the same day an immigration judge denied Khalil bond and ordered him removed, one rogue district judge ordered him released.”
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