The wife of a recent Columbia University graduate who was unlawfully arrested by federal agents has made a dire public plea to government officials to release him from detention.
Immigration enforcement officers abducted Mahmoud Khalil over the weekend and threatened to revoke his green card for helping to lead the anti-war student protests on campus last spring.
Khalil’s wife, who through her attorney said she prefers her name not be used, was walking with her husband to their university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Department of Homeland Security agents took the Palestinian activist without a judicial warrant, despite Khalil being a lawful permanent resident of the United States.
Khalil is “my rock, he is my home and he is my happy place,” his wife said Monday in a statement. The two married in November 2023, and he received his green card last year.
“For everyone who has met Mahmoud they can attest to his incredible character, humbleness, selflessness and his love for helping others. He is always willing to stand up for the oppressed,” she said. “It is clear the love that people have for him from the outpour of love I have been receiving from everyone he has crossed paths with.”
Mary Altaffer via Associated Press
The agents also threatened to arrest her — a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant with their first child — if she did not leave Khalil and go up to their apartment. Khalil is currently being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, a facility his wife cannot travel to because she’s in the late stage of pregnancy.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation until at least Wednesday pending a review of the petition his attorney filed, though he remains in detention. Khalil’s attorney has also requested to bring him back to New York, where he lives.
“For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby,” his wife said. “I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world. Please release Mahmoud Now.”
President Donald Trump celebrated the abduction on Monday, claiming Khalil is “the first arrest of many to come.” Before Khalil’s disappearance, the Trump administration pulled $400 million in grants to Columbia for allegedly not cooperating with the president’s executive order that punishes campus dissent, “due to the school’s continued inaction to protect Jewish students from discrimination.”
Yuki Iwamura via Associated Press
Khalil’s arrest and detention has sparked widespread public anger. Faculty, community leaders, lawmakers and immigrant rights activists warn of the danger that comes with revoking someone’s green card status, and how crushing pro-Palestinian speech under the guise of fighting antisemitism is just one step in the Trump administration’s efforts to quell dissent and free speech altogether.
Columbia interim President Katrina Armstrong said Monday the university is committed to freedom of speech “as a fundamental value that we must uphold as a community — citizens and non-citizens alike.” But emails obtained by Zeteo show that Khalil asked Armstrong for protection one day before his abduction, saying he’s been subjected to “a vicious, coordinated and dehumanizing doxxing campaign” led by two Columbia affiliates who “have labeled me a security threat and called for my deportation.” Armstrong has not confirmed the emails herself.
Go Ad-Free — And Protect The Free Press
Support JS
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Protests and walkouts across the country in support of Khalil and of free speech are planned for Tuesday.
