Public Defenders Demand the Cessation of All Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil
The Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys - UAW Local 2325 condemns the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University, by federal immigration enforcement. Consistent with our past expressions of unwavering support for Palestinian liberation, we call for Khalil’s immediate release as well as the cessation of all deportation proceedings against him.
On the evening of March 8, Mahmoud Khalil and his wife, who is eight months pregnant, were forcefully followed into their apartment building by two Department of Homeland Security agents in plain clothes. The agents refused to identify themselves, while insisting Khalil confirm his own identity. Khalil’s wife, a U.S. citizen, was threatened with arrest for refusing to leave his side. At first, the agents claimed Khalil’s student visa was being revoked. When they were informed that Khalil is a lawful permanent resident with a green card, they eventually responded by saying the State Department had “revoked that too.” Khalil’s attorney—who his wife phoned during the course of the confrontation—asked for a copy of the warrant one of the agents had flashed on a phone screen earlier. In response, the agents ended the call and detained Khalil.
He has not been notified of the purported basis for his detention, and his wife has been unable to see him since he was taken.
The Trump administration’s attack on Khalil coalesces its mass deportation campaign with its attacks on pro-Palestine student protesters. By detaining Khalil, the administration has made explicit what was already obvious: it will criminalize anyone inconvenient or opposed to its violent, racist agenda. Exercising his First Amendment right to protest against the genocide of his people made Khalil a target for arrest, imprisonment, and separation from his family. Given reports that the State Department, Department of Justice, and DHS plan to launch a “Catch and Revoke” AI tool that identifies students who engage in disfavored political activity, many more students will be criminalized. Trump himself said Khalil’s arrest was the first of “many to come.”
Just before Khalil was detained, Columbia University issued guidance that opened the door to ICE’s unobstructed presence on its campus. The protocol went so far as to discourage faculty and staff from preventing ICE from accessing non-public areas of campus without a warrant. The university’s capitulation is reminiscent of the guidance Mayor Adams issued to city agencies just after Trump took office, which blatantly undermined city sanctuary laws and emboldened ICE. City leaders—from Mayor Adams to campus administrators—will find that a strategy of appeasement is one that not only fails to protect their own self-interests, but the interests of all New Yorkers.
The Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys calls for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil, joining over 2.3 million people (as of March 11) who have signed a petition urging the same. We demand that Khalil be reunited with his family, and the immediate cessation of the government’s egregious deportation efforts. Anyone opposed to this dangerous escalation must join in this demand. The livelihood of a Palestinian student who has been taken and unlawfully detained hangs in the balance. So too do our most fundamental constitutional rights to due process and free speech.