Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian rights activist, freed from Ice detention on Friday, returned to Columbia University on Sunday to renew his commitment to the cause of Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the Trump administration.
Khalil arrived back in New York on Saturday after being released from more than 100 days in detention in Louisiana by a federal judge who ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail.
Just outside of Columbia’s gates and reunited with wife Noor Abdalla, Khalil thanked his supporters, legal team and “to salute the courage of all students at Columbia and across the nation who had continued to protest”.
Khalil made clear that following his release from detention he would battle what he called the “shameful trustees at Columbia that are currently attempting to expel 15 more students and to suspend tens of others, basically conceding their future, their degrees and labor because they are not afraid to stand for Palestine”.
The university, he added, “would do anything and everything it can to ensure that the words “free Palestine” are not uttered anywhere near it. “But while we are here, Free, Free Palestine.” The crowd followed in a chant.
Khalil went on to accuse Columbia of attempting to prevent the rally at its gates “just so we cannot remind them that they fund the killing in Gaza” and he described himself not as someone who is violent, as he claimed he has been portrayed, “but as a human rights defender”.
His address determines that Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel’s war on Gaza, plans to sustain his criticism of the university for what activists consider Columbia’s capitulation to Trump administration demands to curb antisemitic speech and threats against Jewish students on campus.
“If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,” Khalil said after shortly after landing in New Jersey on Saturday. “I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.”
Khalil was sent to Jena, Louisiana, shortly after being seized by plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in the lobby of his university residence in front of his heavily pregnant wife, who is a US citizen, in early March.
The 30-year-old, who has not been charged with a crime, was forced to miss the birth of his first child, Deen, by the Trump administration. Khalil had been permitted to see his wife and son briefly – and only once – earlier in June. The American green card holder was held by Ice for 104 days.
Khalil was ordered to surrender his passport and green card to Ice officials in Jena, Louisiana, as part of his conditional release. The order also limits Khalil’s travel to a handful of US states, including New York and Michigan to visit family, for court hearings in Louisiana and New Jersey, and for lobbying in Washington DC.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx Democrat, said Khalil’s ordeal was “not over, and we will have to continue to support this case. The persecution based on political speech is wrong, and it is a violation of all of our first amendment rights, not just Mahmoud’s.”
The Trump administration has said it will appeal the order to release Khalil.
“This is yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security,” Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant homeland security secretary, said in a statement. “Their conduct not only denies the result of the 2024 election, it also does great harm to our constitutional system by undermining public confidence in the courts.”
The Trump administration claims it had the authority to detain and deport Khalil, arguing that his presence in the US is a threat to national security. A second charge alleges that he omitted details about his work history and membership in organizations on his green card application.
Nina Lakhani contributed reporting
