Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia College activist who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for greater than three months, spoke with ABC Information Stay Prime anchor Linsey Davis about his time in custody and vowed to proceed his proper for Palestinian human rights within the first broadcast interview since his launch on Friday.
Khalil, a inexperienced card holder who nonetheless faces the specter of deportation below the Trump administration, advised Davis in an interview that aired on ABC Information Stay’s Prime on Monday that regardless of the lingering menace of renewed detention, he stays undeterred.
“Not any menace would deter me as a result of nobody ought to keep silent when individuals are getting killed. Nobody,” mentioned Khalil, who in 2023-2024 helped lead a sequence of Columbia College protests in opposition to the Israeli navy marketing campaign in Gaza.
Khalil, 30, was a graduate scholar at Columbia through the pro-Palestinian motion that erupted on school campuses throughout the U.S. — one which President Donald Trump vowed to “crush” throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign.
President Donald Trump, throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign, vowed to “crush” the protests as a result of he claimed they had been a hotbed of antisemitism.
“When you had been to take a seat down and have a dialog with President Trump, what would you say?” Davis requested Khalil.
“My foremost message is that (President Trump) vowed that he would set the Palestinian motion on this nation 20 years again throughout his marketing campaign. However what he did to me really superior the reason for Palestinian liberation for a few years,” Khalil mentioned.
Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia College pro-Palestinian activist who was detained by ICE for greater than three months, spoke with ABC Information Stay Prime anchor Linsey Davis within the first on-camera interview since his launch.
ABC Information
Trump final yr reportedly advised donors at a closed-door assembly throughout his marketing campaign that he would crush the faculty protests.
The motion was sparked by the Israel-Hamas struggle that started on Oct. 7, 2023, with Hamas’ terrorist assault on Israel, the place not less than 1,200 had been killed and 251 had been taken hostage. Fifty hostages nonetheless stay in Hamas captivity, and an extra 27 believed to be useless, based on Israeli officers.
The struggle has taken a extreme toll on the Palestinian inhabitants in Gaza, with 55,104 folks killed, based on the Hamas-run Gaza Well being Ministry.
“We didn’t ask that Palestinians ought to obtain particular therapy,” Khalil mentioned concerning the calls for of the student-led motion. “We actually mentioned we solely need justice and equality.’
Who’s Mahmoud Khalil?
Khalil, who was detained on March 8 in his New York residence constructing, was the primary high-profile pro-Palestinian activist to be detained by ICE below the Trump administration. That was adopted by the arrest of a number of different scholar activists.
“I felt like I used to be actually kidnapped,” Khalil recalled. “All of the ‘know your rights’ that I’ve indulged myself into felt like nothing, as a result of at that second ICE made it clear that you haven’t any rights in anyway.”
The grandson of Palestinian refugees, Khalil was born and raised in a small refugee camp in southern Damascus. He turned a refugee once more in Lebanon through the Syrian civil struggle and later moved to Algeria, the place he has citizenship. Khalil mentioned that he was first accepted into Columbia College in 2020 however needed to defer till 2022 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
He’s married to Dr. Noor Abdalla, an American citizen, who gave start on April 21 to the couple’s first youngster, a boy named Deen. Khalil’s request to be current for his son’s start was denied and he didn’t meet him till Could 22 whereas in custody.
He mentioned that lacking his son’s start was essentially the most troublesome a part of his detention.
“What did that imply that you simply had been denied that?” Davis requested.
“That is essentially the most merciless factor that any administration would do,” Khalil mentioned.
Requested what his first evening together with his son was like after his launch, Khalil mentioned that he “could not sleep.”
“(I used to be) simply him, being with him,” he mentioned. “I might be alert to any kind of expression that Deen would make as a result of the second that was stripped of me, of witnessing his start, actually impacted me on so many ranges.”
Why was he detained?
In detaining Khalil — a authorized U.S. resident — the Trump administration argued that his continued presence within the nation would pose a danger to U.S. international coverage.
“The White Home has mentioned that you simply distributed pro-Hamas fliers. Secretary Rubio mentioned that you simply created an surroundings of harassment towards Jewish college students. President Trump mentioned we bought to get him the hell out of our nation. Why do you suppose that you’re perceived as such a menace?” Davis requested Khalil.
“As a result of I symbolize a motion that goes in opposition to what this administration is making an attempt to do,” Khalil responded. “They attempt to painting me as a violent individual. They attempt to painting me as a terrorist, as some lunatic, however not presenting any proof, not presenting any shred of credibility to their claims.”
When speaking in regards to the Palestinian motion, Khalil mentioned there may be “no place” for antisemitism or “any type of racism.”
“There is no place for any type of racism, together with anti-Blackness, antisemitism within the Palestine motion, and the Jewish college students and other people typically in the US are an integral a part of the Palestinian motion,” he mentioned.
Columbia College graduate scholar Mahmoud Khalil speaks to the press subsequent to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport, a day after being launched from immigration custody, in Newark, New Jersey, June 21, 2025.
Angelina Katsanis/Reuters
U.S. District Choose Michael Farbiarz issued a preliminary injunction on June 11 barring the Trump administration from persevering with to detain him based mostly on the assertion that he is a menace to nationwide safety. However Khalil was detained for an extra week till his launch on Friday after the federal government argued for his continued detention based mostly on their allegation that he misrepresented data on his inexperienced card software.
“The Trump administration has mentioned that you simply made omissions in your inexperienced card and misrepresented your self. Is there any fact to that?” Davis requested.
“Completely not,” Khalil mentioned. “They added these allegations every week after my arrest as a result of they knew that their first allegation can be fallacious.”
What comes subsequent
Khalil was launched on Friday from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, Louisiana, after Choose Farbiarz issued an order granting his launch on bail. The choose mentioned the federal government made no try and show that Khalil’s launch would irreparably hurt them in a roundabout way or that Khalil represented a flight danger.
“What all that proof provides as much as is a scarcity of violence, a scarcity of property destruction, a scarcity of something that is perhaps characterised as incitement to violence,” Farbiarz mentioned of Khalil.
The choose mentioned that the situations of Khalil’s launch shall not embody digital monitoring or a requirement {that a} bond be instantly posted.
The ruling to launch Khalil got here on the identical time an immigration choose in Jena, Louisiana, denied Khalil’s request for asylum and ordered him to stay detained — however Farbiarz’ order outdated that ruling.
The Division of Homeland Safety sharply criticized the choose’s resolution to launch Khalil, saying in an announcement on Friday that the ruling is “one more instance of how out-of-control members of the judicial department are undermining nationwide safety,” and arguing “an immigration choose, not a district choose, has the authority to determine if Mr. Khalil needs to be launched or detained.”
“Their conduct not solely denies the results of the 2024 election, it additionally does nice hurt to our constitutional system by undermining public confidence within the courts,” the assertion mentioned.
As his case strikes ahead, Khalil mentioned that he’s “very involved” about his and household’s security and mentioned he is aware of that he might be detained once more if the Trump administration’s enchantment prevails in federal courtroom.
Reflecting on “a really lengthy struggle forward,” he mentioned that the administration’s threats is not going to cease him from talking out.
“(The Trump administration) need to make me an instance in order that nobody would dare to discuss Palestine,” Khalil mentioned. “However it will not cease me from persevering with to advocate for what’s proper.”
ABC Information’ Sabna Ghebremedhin Contribution to this report.
