Mahmoud Khalil talks with NPR after release : NPR
After 104 days of detention, the student graduated from the University of Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil, speaks with NPR his experience.
Ari Shapiro, host:
After 104 days of detention, a federal judge ordered the government to release the student graduate from Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil. The Trump administration arrested him in March. They said that his pro-Palestinian activism was anti-Semitic and threatened American foreign policy targets. At the time, his wife was eight months pregnant. She gave birth to their son without Khalil by her side. Leila Fadel of NPR told her about her experience.
Mahmoud Khalil: Missing the birth of Deen, I think it was the most tragic event that happened to me in my life. And last month, after so much pressure, they allowed me to hold it for an hour. So this time, I felt, of course, different. These are just very mixed feelings.
Leila Fadel, Byline: What do you mean to have mixed feelings?
Khalil: I was in shock. For example, is it really going on? Am I reverie? But also mixed feelings about hundreds of fathers in the detention center that there is not – absolutely no reason why they cannot hold their children. In a way, I felt that now I defeated Trump. They wanted to separate me from my family, but they failed.
Fadel: Can you say more about it? I mean, it is an administration that said very clearly that they think that the demonstrations are bad, that they are anti -Semites and that they will continue to expel and have students.
Khalil: They want the demonstrations to stop because it exposes the hypocrisy of this administration and the government with regard to human rights. In my case, they armed the immigration system to achieve what they want, which is to cool the word. And Trump essentially thinks that he creates the law and that people should follow. The fact that the federal judge ordered my release meant that Trump is essentially not a king.
Shapiro: It was Mahmoud Khalil talking with Leila Fadel of NPR. A spokesperson for internal security said Khalil’s detention was legal and had exhorted him to retire. The White House says it expects to be, citing, “justified on appeal”. The administration did not answer NPR questions about the reasons why Khalil was not allowed to speak to journalists, and they did not provide evidence of their allegations according to which Khalil supported Hamas or an incited anti -Semitism.
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