Palestinian Student Jailed 104 Days, Missed Son’s Birth

Mahmoud Khalil was finishing a master’s degree at Columbia University when plain-clothed officers from the Department of Homeland Security took him from his home in New York in March 2025. They sent him to an immigration detention centre, then moved him to another facility in Louisiana, more than 1,000 miles away. Khalil holds a green card, which gives him permanent US residency. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided that Khalil remaining in the country would have “adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The government sought to deport him under a legal provision that dates back to the McCarthy era. A federal judge ruled his detention unconstitutional, and Khalil was released on bail in June 2024. The Trump administration is still trying to remove him. Khalil was born to Palestinian parents in a refugee camp in Syria. He was targeted because he spoke up for pro-Palestinian protesters during campus demonstrations over Columbia University’s ties to Israel. The protesters wanted Columbia to cut links with Israeli academic institutions and with companies profiting from Israel’s assault on Gaza. The university called in the New York Police Department in response. There was no suggestion that Khalil had done anything unlawful, and no criminal charges were brought against him. The government had simply identified him as an influential pro-Palestinian voice on campus, and for that reason alone wanted him gone. He spent a total of 104 days in detention. He missed the birth of his son.