Leaving an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana after being imprisoned for 104 days for protesting Israel's U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza, former Columbia University organizer Mahmoud Khalil said Friday evening that he will continue fighting against the Trump administration's targeting of him and immigrants across the country.
"They chose the wrong person for this," said Khalil outside the facility where he'd been detained since being abducted by immigration agents outside his New York City apartment in March. "That doesn't mean that there is a right person for this. There is no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide, for protesting their university."
Khalil told reporters his top priority as he was released was being reunited with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and their two-month-old son, whom he was able to meet only briefly after a judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to allow the family to attend a meeting together with Khalil's legal team in May.
"Now I can actually hug him and Noor, my wife, without looking at the clock," said Khalil.
He also acknowledged the "incredible men" he met while he was detained with other immigrants for more than three months.
"The hundreds of men who I left behind me shouldn't be there in the first place," said Khalil. "The Trump administration is doing their best to dehumanize everyone here. Whether you are a U.S. citizen, an immigrant, or just a person on this land, doesn't mean that you are less of a human."
"No human is illegal," he added. "Justice will prevail no matter what this administration may try to portray."
The administration acknowledged after Khalil was detained that he was not accused of a crime, but of being a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests because he helped lead protests and negotiations with Columbia administrators, calling on the university to divest from companies that benefit from Israel's assault on Gaza. The war has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians and is widely considered a genocide by human rights groups and experts.
The State Department has claimed it had a right to revoke Khalil's green card and pursue his deportation—and that of other international students who have protested U.S. policy in Israel and Gaza—under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Officials have also accused Khalil of lying about his background on his immigration paperwork—failing to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which aids Palestinians in Gaza, and with a British government agency after 2022.
Khalil's lawyers have pointed out that his work with UNRWA was part of his coursework at Columbia and have rejected claims that he lied about his work with the British agency.
Federal judges have ordered the release of several student protesters in recent weeks. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said on Friday that the administration's efforts to continue detaining Khalil were "highly, highly unusual" and required officials to allow him to reunite with his family.
Farbiarz previously ruled that Khalil could not be detained or deported under the Immigration and Nationality Act—rejecting immigration Judge Jamee Comans' ruling that the deportation effort could proceed.
After Khalil's release, the administration said it would appeal Farbiarz's ruling, with Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin saying that on Friday Comans had denied Khalil asylum and a bail hearing in her court. Comans ruled again that Khalil could be deported.
"On the same day an immigration judge denied Khalil bond and ordered him removed, one rogue district judge ordered him released," McLaughlin said. "This is yet another example of how out-of-control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security."
Farbiarz's message to the government regarding his decision to release Khalil was straightforward: "He is not a danger to the community, period, full stop."
In his initial statement to the press, Khalil said his ordeal thus far had opened his eyes to "a different reality about this country that supposedly champions human rights and and liberty and justice."
"The moment you enter this facility, your rights leave you behind," said Khalil. "Once you cross literally that door, you see the opposite side of what is actually happening in this country under the eyes of everyone."
