Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over his campus activism, said he has suffered “visceral” harm after missing the birth of his son while in federal custody.
“The most immediate and visceral harms I have experienced directly relate to the birth of my son, Deen. Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone,” Khalil, a green card holder, wrote in court documents filed Thursday.
“I listened to her pain, trying to comfort her while 70 other men slept around me,” he added.
The Trump administration said it plans to revoke Khalil’s legal status and urged him to self deport, according to reports from the Associated Press. Khalil was denied permission to go to the birth of his first child last month.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio initiated removal efforts for Khalil in March citing a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act over the government’s allegation that he participated in pro-Hamas rhetoric at campus protests amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“To not be able to see them, hold them, speak with them freely, enjoy everything I imagined our first days as a family would be like, is devastating. Worst still is knowing that they must face all the fear and notoriety of this case without me,” Khalil wrote in this week’s court documents.
“The Rubio Determination is casting a shadow of suspicion across our entire family. I could never have imagined this would happen, and it is horrifying to experience this as a husband and father,” he added.
Khalil, in the court filings, denied accusations that he supports Hamas but questioned the Israeli government’s strikes on “innocent Palestinians.”
Democrats and advocacy organizations have urged officials to immediately release Khalil, alleging that his constitutional right to free speech has been ignored.
“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American. The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate,” Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project said in a statement.
The State Department did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
