Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil has said the Trump administration failed to suppress pro-Palestinian voices, following his release from more than three months in immigration detention. “My existence is a message” to the Trump administration, he told the BBC after returning to New Jersey from a detention centre in Louisiana. “All these attempts to suppress...
Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news — make a quick donation to Truthout today! 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...
A federal judge ordered Columbia University student and activist Mahmoud Khalil to be released on bail after he has spent over three months in detention, US media reports. Mr Khalil became a symbol of the the Trump administration’s high-profile crackdown on universities and foreign students when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him in New...
Former Columbia University student protester Mahmoud Khalil remained in detention in Louisiana Thursday even after a ruling by a federal judge who found that his imprisonment by Trump immigration officials is “likely” unconstitutional — but his attorneys expressed hope that the decision brought Khalil a step closer to being reunited with his wife and newborn...
Columbia University President Claire Shipman was booed during a graduation ceremony on Tuesday, with chants of “Free Mahmoud” heard drowning her out. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate was detained by US immigration officials in March over his role in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. He is a permanent legal US resident and has not been...
“ICE has admitted it detained Mahmoud illegally … to justify it, they are now flat out lying,” said a legal advocate. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did not have a warrant when they arrested Palestinian activist and green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil on March 8, according to court papers filed by the Department of Homeland...
“I will continue to fight every day for Mahmoud to come home to us,” Noor Abdalla said, shortly after giving birth. Former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who was abducted by immigration officials for his activism against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, was barred from attending the birth of his firstborn child on Monday after Immigration...
“I lie sleepless … in Jena, Louisiana, far from my wife, Noor, who will give birth to our baby in two weeks,” he wrote. In a letter from an immigrant detention center in Louisiana, pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil has pleaded for his case to spur the public into action against the rapid erosion of civil...
A US judge has ruled the government can deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate arrested last month by immigration officers. Mr Khalil, a permanent legal US resident, has not been charged with a crime. The government is seeking to remove him under a Cold War-era immigration law. He has been held at a Louisiana...
He urges readers to “reclaim the university and join the student movement to carry forward the work of the past year.” In an op-ed dictated to his attorney from a detention facility in Louisiana, Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil late last week condemned the Ivy League institution’s complicity in the Trump administration’s targeting of Palestinian...
Part of the Series Human Rights and Global Wrongs A federal judge in New Jersey will soon issue a ruling on where the deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student who led the student encampment at Columbia University last year, can be litigated. On March 8, Khalil was abducted in New York by agents...
The new documentary The Encampments, produced by Watermelon Pictures and BreakThrough News, is an insider’s look at the student protest movement to demand divestment from the U.S. and Israeli weapons industry and an end to the genocide in Gaza. The film focuses on last year’s student encampment at Columbia University and features student leaders including...
Editor’s note: Palestinian activist and recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil has issued his first public statement since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) snatched him from his home on March 8, 2025. The statement was dictated to Khalil’s friends and family from the ICE jail in Jena, Louisiana, where he is being held, and it was...
Yesterday, 98 protesters were arrested in New York City after overtaking the Trump Tower lobby in solidarity with Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and U.S. permanent resident facing deportation for his involvement in Palestine solidarity protests at Columbia University. The demonstration was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, which stated on social media, “We know...
Police arrested around 100 participants in the protest, which was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. On Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators poured into the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City to protest against the Trump administration’s arrest and attempted deportation of Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who is currently being detained by Immigration...