Rabia Iclal Turan
March 19, 2025•Update: March 20, 2025
WASHINGTON
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent Columbia University graduate, decried his arrest and the conditions facing detainees in US immigration facilities, calling himself a "political prisoner."
"My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana, where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law," Khalil wrote in a letter made public Tuesday.
Khalil was arrested on March 8 by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents after they accosted him and his eight-month pregnant wife Noor Abdalla as they returned from dinner. He was taken into custody without a warrant, and the agents withheld details about his arrest, according to footage of the arrest that was made public by his family on Friday.
The Trump administration has accused Khalil, who played a prominent role in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school last year, of engaging in “activities aligned with Hamas,” although no evidence has been provided.
He is currently being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Louisiana.
Khalil said his arrest was a direct result of his activism for a free Palestine and an end to Israeli violence in Gaza.
"My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night," he wrote in the letter. "It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom."
"I was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to a family which has been displaced from their land since the 1948 Nakba," he continued.
Khalil also drew parallels between his situation and the use of administrative detention by Israel, where Palestinians are often imprisoned without trial or charge. He accused both the Biden and Trump administrations of perpetuating anti-Palestinian racism, citing US support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
He also accused Columbia University of targeting him for his activism and "creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence students criticizing Israel."
"If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation," he wrote.
As Khalil awaits legal decisions that could affect the futures of both himself and his wife, he has called for broader solidarity among students, activists and elected officials to defend the right to protest for Palestine.
"I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child," he said.
