By MAHMOUD KHALIL*
A letter dictated by telephone by the American student leader detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
1.
My name is Mahmoud Khalil, and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention center in Louisiana, where I wake up on cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the silent injustices that are being perpetrated against many people who are denied the protections of the law.
Who has the right to have rights? It certainly isn’t the humans crammed into cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who was deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal status in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old inmate I met who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing.
Justice escapes the contours of this nation's immigration facilities.
On March 8, I was taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a warrant and approached my wife and me as we were returning from dinner. The footage from that night has now been made public. Before I knew what was happening, the agents had handcuffed me and forced me into an unmarked car. At that point, my only concern was for Noor’s safety.
I had no idea if she would be taken away too, as agents threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side. DHS wouldn’t tell me anything for hours—I didn’t know what I was being held for or whether I was facing immediate deportation. At 26 Federal Plaza, I slept on the cold floor. In the early morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I slept on the floor and was refused a blanket, despite my request.
2.
My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to freedom of expression, as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force on Monday night. With the January ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again packing shrouds for very young children, and families are forced to endure starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the fight for their complete freedom.
I was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, into a family that had been displaced from their land since Nakba 1948. I spent my youth close to, but far from, my homeland. But being Palestinian is an experience that transcends borders. I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention – imprisonment without trial or charge – to deprive Palestinians of their rights.
I think of our friend Omar Khatib, who was imprisoned without charge or trial by Israel upon returning from a trip. I think of Gaza hospital director and pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was captured by the Israeli military on December 27 and remains in an Israeli torture camp to this day. For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace.
I have always believed that my duty is not only to free myself from the oppressor, but also to free my oppressors from their hatred and fear. My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Joe Biden administration and the Donald Trump administration have demonstrated over the past 16 months, as the US has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and has blocked international intervention. For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has fueled efforts to expand US laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab-Americans, and other communities. This is precisely why I am being targeted.
3.
As I await legal decisions that put the future of my wife and child at stake, those who enabled my arrest sit comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean Yarhi-Milo set the stage for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing the doxing viral – based on racism and misinformation – went unnoticed.
Columbia University targeted me for my activism, creating a new, authoritarian disciplinary office to circumvent due process and silence students who criticized Israel. Columbia has bowed to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and bowing to the latest threats from the Trump administration. My arrest, the expulsion or suspension of at least 22 Columbia students—some of whom had their bachelor’s degrees taken away just weeks before graduation—and the ouster of SWC [Columbia Working Students] President Grant Miner on the eve of contract negotiations are prime examples.
If nothing else, my arrest is a testament to the power of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation. Students have long been at the forefront of change—leading the charge against the Vietnam War, being at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement, and driving the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully understand it, it is students who are leading us toward truth and justice.
The Donald Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent. Visa holders, green card holders, and citizens will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the coming weeks, students, advocates, and elected officials must come together to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.
Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I nevertheless hope to be free to witness the birth of my first child.
*Mahmoud Khalil is a leader of the Palestinian movement at Columbia University. He holds a master's degree from Columbia University's School of Public and International Affairs..
Translation: Sean Purdy.
Originally published in the magazine In These Times.
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