Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after more than 100 days in Ice detention | Mahmoud Khalil

Mahmoud Khalil – The Palestinian rights activist, a graduate of Columbia University and legal permanent resident of the United States who was detained by the federal immigration authorities for more than three months – has been brought together with his wife and child.

Khalil, the highest level student to be targeted by the Trump administration for denouncing the War of Israel against Gaza, arrived in New Jersey on Saturday around 1 p.m. – two hours later that his flight was released for the first time in Philadelphia.

Khalil smiles largely to his supporters who applaud as he emerged from security at Newark airport pushing his young son in a black stroller, with his high right fist and a Palestinian Keffiyeh draped on his shoulders. He was accompanied by his wife, Noor Abdalla, as well as members of his legal team and the Democrat representative of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would always speak for Palestine,” he said at a brief press conference after landing. “I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, pleading for Palestinian rights, a speech that should be celebrated rather than punished.”

“It’s not over and we will have to continue supporting this case,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “The persecution based on political discourse is wrong, and it is a violation of all our rights to the first amendment, not just Mahmoud.”

The Trump administration “knows that they are led a losing legal battle,” added Ocasio-Cortez, which represents parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Khalil embraced some of his supporters, many of whom also carried Keffiyehs in a demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Friday evening, Khalil was released from a detention center for immigration to Louisiana after a federal judge ruled that punishing someone for a civil immigration case was unconstitutional and ordered his liberation on bail.

Khalil was sent to Jena, Louisiana, shortly after having been seized by plainclothes agents in civilian immigration and customs (ICE) in the hall of his university residence in front of his very pregnant wife, who is an American citizen in early March.

The 30 -year -old man, who was not accused of a crime, was forced to miss the birth of his first child, Deen, by the Trump administration. Khalil had been authorized to see his wife and son briefly – and only once – earlier in June. The Green American card has been held by ICE for 104 days.

Friday, by ordering the immediate release of Khalil, the federal judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, noted that the government had not demonstrated that the graduate was a risk of theft or a danger to the public. “”[He] is not a danger to the community, “said Farbiarz.” Period, full point. »»

The judge also judged that punishing someone on a civil immigration case by holding them was unconstitutional.

Addressing journalists outside the Jena detention center where around 1,000 men are detained, Khalil said: “Trump and his administration, they have chosen the bad person for that. This does not mean there is a good person for this. There is no good person who should be detained to really protest a genocide.”

“No one is illegal-no human is illegal,” he said. “Justice will prevail, regardless of what this administration could try.”

The Trump administration immediately filed a notice of appeal, reported NBC.

Khalil was ordered to give up his passport and a green card to the ICE officials in Jena, Louisiana, as part of her parole. The prescription also limits Khalil’s trip to a handful of American states, notably New York and Michigan to visit the family, for judicial audiences in Louisiana and New Jersey, and for lobbying in Washington DC. He must inform the Ministry of Internal Security of his speech within 48 hours of his arrival in New York.

Khalil’s detention was largely condemned as a dangerous escalation in the assault on the Trump administration against the speech, which is ostensibly protected by the first amendment to the American Constitution. His detention was the first in a series of high -level arrests of international students who had spoken of the headquarters of Israel in Gaza, his occupation of the Palestinian territories and the financial links of their university with companies that take advantage of Israeli military strikes.

The release of Khalil marks the latest setback for the Trump administration, who undertook to expel international pro-Palestinian students en masse, affirming without proof that the denunciation against the Israeli State is equivalent to anti-Semitism.

In the case of Khalili, several Jewish students and teachers had submitted legal documents in his support. Khalil was a main negotiator between the demonstrations of the pro-Palestinian campus led by the Jews in Columbia in 2024. And during an appearance on CNN, he said: “The release of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people is intertwined and goes by hand, and you cannot reach one without the other.”

In addition to missing the birth of his son, Khalil was kept from the first Mother’s Day and the Father’s Day of his family, and his diploma in Columbia when he was detained from March 8 to June 20.

Trump’s repression against freedom of expression, activists and pro -Palestinian immigrants sparked manifestations and a general conviction, while ice agents accelerate operations to hold tens of thousands of people a month for deportation while seeking – and in many cases that succeed – to avoid regular procedure.

Three other students detained for reasons similar to Khalil – Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi – were previously published while their immigration cases are pending. Others voluntarily left the country after the opening of expulsion procedures against them. Another is to hide as she fights her case.

On Sunday, a rally to celebrate the release of Khalil – and protest against current detention by thousands of other immigrants in the United States and to the Palestinians detained without trial in Israel – will be held at 5.30 pm HE at the steps of St John the divine in the top of Manhattan. Khalil should address supporters, alongside his legal representatives.

“Mahmoud’s release revives our determination to continue to fight until all our prisoners are released – whether in Palestine or in the United States, until we saw the end of the genocide and the seat in Gaza, and until we apply an embargo on arms on Israel,” said Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Young Movement.