Mahmoud Khalil arrives in New Jersey after release from ICE custody

Mahmoud Khalil is back in New Jersey after a federal judge ordered his release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in Louisiana. 

The Columbia University graduate and activist arrived on a flight to Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday after spending months in ICE custody as the Trump administration fights to deport him.

“My existence is a message”

A crowd of friends was waiting to greet Khalil when he arrived, pushing his baby in a stroller and walking alongside his wife and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“Your words of support, your messages have kept me going,” Khalil said.

Khalil, a green card holder, was in ICE custody for more than 100 days.

“The fact that I’m here, it sends a message. The fact that all these attempts to suppress pro-Palestine voices have failed now. So this is the message. My existence is a message. The Palestinian existence is a message to this administration,” he said during a press conference after landing.

Khalil accused the Trump administration of trying to dehumanize him, and dehumanize immigrants as a whole.

“Because Mahmoud Khalil is an advocate for Palestinian human rights, he has been accused baselessly of horrific allegations, simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

The Democratic congresswoman said his detainment was a violation of his First Amendment rights and “an affront to every American.”

“This is an incredibly significant and important victory, although one that came far too late,” said Baher Azmy, with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,” Khalil said. “I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.”   

Khalil released after being detained by ICE for months

The Trump administration has been seeking Khalil’s deportation for his role in Columbia campus protests against Israel. He has not been charged with any crimes, but the administration says he should leave the country due to activities it deems are aligned with Hamas.

“Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this,” Khalil said, addressing reporters after leaving the facility on Friday to return to New York. 

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Michael Fabiarz ruled Khalil is neither a threat to his community nor a flight risk. He called Khalil’s detention “highly unusual” and the federal government’s actions “an effort to use the immigration charge to punish the petitioner” for his anti-Israel speech.

The government had said in court papers that Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Khalil’s “presence or activities [in the United States] would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”

Despite rejecting Rubio’s determination to continue to hold Khalil on foreign policy grounds, the judge left open a path for the government to continue its effort to deport him for reasons such as problems with his green card application.

Ultimately, the judge determined Khalil does not need to be detained while the deportation proceedings play out. He said he would not order electronic monitoring either. 

Khalil’s arrest set off series of protests

Khalil was arrested by federal immigration agents in the lobby of his Columbia-owned Manhattan apartment on March 8, setting off a series of protests and nationwide discussions over free speech. 

Hours after his arrest, he was transferred to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, far from his legal team and pregnant wife. The government refused to release him to attend the birth of his son.

Khalil’s arrest was the first of several similar incidents across the country.

Another Columbia activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, who also has a green card, was arrested on April 14. Mahdawi was detained for allegedly posing a risk of “adverse foreign policy consequences.” He was released about two weeks later by a federal judge who ruled that he was likely being punished for protected speech. He graduated from Columbia after his release.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student, was released in May at the order of a federal judge after she was detained for more than a month. Her attorneys said she was taken into custody over to an op-ed she wrote for a campus newspaper.

Mark Prussin

contributed to this report.