Mahmoud Khalil’s wife gives birth while he remains in ICE custody in Louisiana
By Renee Anderson
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NEW YORK (WCBS) — Dr. Noor Abdalla, the wife of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist being held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, gave birth to their first child Monday.
Abdalla says Khalil was denied temporary release from a detention center in Louisiana to attend the birth.
In a statement Monday, she said she “welcomed our son into the world earlier today without Mahmoud by my side.”
“Despite our request for ICE to allow Mahmoud to attend the birth, they denied his temporary release to meet our son. This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer,” her statement continued.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was taken into custody on March 8 at his Columbia-owned apartment in New York City. The 30-year-old was a vocal member of last year’s campus protests over the war in Gaza.
His lawyers said he was transferred from an ICE field office in Manhattan to New Jersey and then Louisiana, where he remains. He is not charged with any crime.
“My husband was taken away from me in the middle of the night. It was one of the most terrifying times of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything scarier than that,” Abdalla said in a March interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Deportation proceeding against Khalil can continue, judge says Earlier this month, a judge in Louisiana ruled the federal government’s effort to deport Khalil could move forward after Secretary of State Marco Rubio alleged in court documents his presence threatens “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
Trump officials have also accused Khalil of omitting information about his work history on his green card application.
The judge gave Khalil’s lawyers until April 23 to file applications for relief to stop his deportation to Syria, where he was born, or Algeria, where he is a citizen, according to court documents.
His defense responded, calling the hearing a “charade of due process” and vowing to appeal.
“Mahmoud remains unjustly detained in an ICE detention center over 1,000 miles away from his firstborn child. My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom,” Abdalla said in Monday’s statement. “I will continue to fight every day for Mahmoud to come home to us. I know when Mahmoud is freed, he will show our son how to be brave, thoughtful, and compassionate, just like his dad.”
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