‘I am a political prisoner’: Mahmoud Khalil slams his detention in US after pro-Palestine protests

Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil says he is a "political prisoner" targeted to suppress dissent, after being detained by the United States police for leading Pro-Palestine protests.

The Palestinian activist and green card holder, in his first public remarks since his detention by US immigration authorities, condemned the treatment of immigrants in detention and accused the Trump administration of targeting him for his political beliefs.

Speaking from a Louisiana detention facility, Khalil described his experience as that of a political prisoner, emphasizing the injustices faced by detainees deprived of legal protections. He attributed his arrest to his activism, particularly his leadership in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, and warned that the government’s actions were part of a broader effort to suppress dissent among immigrants and political activists.

“I am a political prisoner. 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,” he said in a statement provided exclusively to British daily The Guardian on Tuesday.

Khalil was arrested on March 8 in New York, reportedly based on a State Department order to revoke his green card. He detailed his arrest, which took place at his university-owned apartment in front of his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, without a warrant. After being detained in New Jersey, he was transferred to Louisiana, where he has been subjected to harsh conditions, including sleeping on the floor without a blanket.

“My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I 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,” he added in the statement, which he dictated to his friends and family over the phone from an Ice detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.

Drawing parallels between his situation and Israel’s use of administrative detention against Palestinians, he highlighted the plight of other detainees, including a Senegalese man held for a year without resolution and a young immigrant deported without a hearing.

Khalil issued the statement to rail against the US’s treatment of immigrants in its custody, Israel’s renewed bombardment of the Gaza Strip, US foreign policy, and what he described as Columbia University’s surrender to federal pressure to punish students.

“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,” said the Palestinian activist, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to a family displaced from their land since the 1948 Nakba.

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His detention has sparked protests and alarm among free speech advocates, who argue that he is being unlawfully targeted for his activism, with his lawyers contending that the Trump administration is using rarely invoked legal provisions to deport him, although he is not being charged with a crime.

The Trump administration has accused Khalil of leading “activities aligned to Hamas”, the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement, and was attempting to deport him using a rarely invoked legal provision from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which gives the US secretary of state the power to remove someone from the US if his or her presence in the country is deemed to “have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

A federal judge has temporarily blocked his deportation, while the legal challenge is pending, warning that his case could set a precedent for further crackdowns on political activism by immigrants and students.

Khalil also called on students and activists to unite in defending the right to protest, emphasizing that the fight extends beyond his case to fundamental civil liberties.

“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 stressed.

The former Palestinian student also denounced Columbia University for enabling government pressure by disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing doxing campaigns against them.

Khalil linked his detention to broader anti-Palestinian policies upheld by both the Biden and Trump administrations, arguing that US support for Israel fuels repression against Palestinians and Arab Americans. 

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