Mahmoud Khalil particulars psychological ache and reputational hurt in new authorized filings: ‘Efforts to erase my humanity’ | EUROtoday

The Columbia University student-activist on the heart of a authorized battle with Donald Trump’s administration has filed dozens of items of proof and statements outlining the “irreparable harm” he faces in an immigration detention heart in Louisiana.

Mahmoud Khalil — who was arrested by federal brokers almost three months in the past for his function main pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus — additionally submitted a declaration of his personal, writing of the “visceral” ache he skilled lacking the beginning of his son.

“Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone,” Khalil wrote. “I listened to her pain, trying to comfort her while 70 other men slept around me. When I heard my son’s first cries, I buried my face in my arms so no one would see me weep.”

The large tranche of filings unsealed on Thursday additionally embody statements from Khalil’s spouse, his fellow Columbia college students and professors, a former State Department official condemning his “arbitrary” detention, and specialists outlining the chilling impact of his arrest and Islamophobic reactions surrounding his case.

Khalil’s arrest has sparked protests throughout the nation and fears the Trump administration is crushing political dissent by concentrating on demonstrations in opposition to Israel’s devastating marketing campaign in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has mentioned he “proudly” revoked a whole lot of scholar visas over campus activism, resulting in a number of high-profile arrests of worldwide students.

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Khalil, who’s Palestinian, grew up in a refugee camp in Syria. He entered the United States on a scholar visa in 2022 to pursue a grasp’s diploma in public administration, which he accomplished final yr. He missed his commencement ceremony final month.

“As someone who fled persecution in Syria for my political beliefs, for who I am, I never imagined myself to be in immigration detention, here in the United States,” Khalil wrote in his declaration.

Lawyers for Khalil argue he suffers “irreparable harm from his arrest and detention” — together with First Amendment violations, his separation from his spouse and little one, and “psychological harm specific to his arrest and detention.”

They additionally accuse the Trump administration of damaging Khalil’s fame “by baselessly identifying him as a risk to the foreign policy of the United States, marking him and his family as targets for harassment and notoriety and severely undermining his ability to pursue a career in international diplomacy and human rights advocacy.”

Khalil wrote that he was topic to “dignitary and reputational harm, personal and familial hardship, including constant fear for personal safety, continued detention, restrictions on my freedom of expression, and severe damage to my professional future.”

Statements from the Trump administration amounted to “attacks” in opposition to him, amplified throughout social media and into the lives of his household, he mentioned.

“These were not just attacks on my character,” he added. “They were efforts to erase my humanity.”

His spouse Noor Abdalla described the second Khalil met his new child son by a plate glass window inside a detention heart — one month after he was born.

“It was an awful feeling for all of us,” she wrote. “Mahmoud was right there, but he could not touch his son.”

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The filings observe a federal choose’s ruling that the Trump administration’s try and deport Khalil on international coverage grounds is probably going unconstitutional.

New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz has requested for added info earlier than ruling on his launch from detention.

The administration has accused Khalil of “antisemitic activities” and of supporting Hamas, which he has flatly rejected. He has not been charged with any crime, however officers declare Khalil may be eliminated over what Rubio has characterised as “adverse foreign policy consequences.”

Khalil is also looking for an order to dam Rubio from counting on an obscure immigration regulation to equally deport different activists.

There are not any additional hearings scheduled in his parallel immigration court docket proceedings in Louisiana. The choose in that case has decided Khalil may be deported.