Mahmoud Khalil, a student at Columbia University arrested in March by immigration agents, responded for the first time to the charges against him and described the “irreparable damage” that his arrest has had about him and his family.
“I have suffered, and I continue to suffer, as a result of the government’s actions against me,” he said in a statement included in a letter that his legal team presented Thursday in support of his offer for a preliminary judicial order in his federal case.
“The most immediate and visceral damage that I have experienced are directly related to the birth of my son, Deen. Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the births, I bent down in a detention center, whispering through a crepiting telephone line while working alone,” Khalil said. “I heard her pain, trying to comfort her while 70 men slept around me. When I heard my son’s first shouts, I buried my face in my arms so that nobody saw me cry.”
His wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, had eight months pregnant when Khalil was arrested on March 8 in his New York Apartment building. She said she had requested her presence at birth, but was denied by the immigration of the United States and the application of customs.
Khalil said not being able to see his family has been “devastating.”
In his statement, he condemned the White House and President Donald Trump for the “grotesque and false” statements against him. Khalil was White of deportation after he helped organize pro-palestinian manifestations on the university campus.
He is detained in an installation in the rural area of Jena, Louisiana.
A spokesman for the National Security Department said in a statement that “it is a privilege to receive a green visa or card to live and study in the United States of America.”
“When it advocates violence, glorify and support terrorists who enjoy the murder of Americans and harass the Jews, take care of the buildings and disfigure the property, that privilege must be revoked, and you should not be in this country,” the statement added.
DHS said that Khalil was awarded a contact visit with his wife and son before his appearance in the Court and has been given the option of self -supporting.
The Department of Justice declined to comment, and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
“It is difficult to describe the humiliation and pain of seeing that the images of myself circulate from the highest levels of the United States government, accompanied by an inflammatory language, grotesque and false accusations, and an open celebration of my deportation,” Khalil said in the statement. “These were not just attacks against my character; they were efforts to erase my humanity.”
Khalil said that his wife and family have also been subject to harassment after the government labeled it as a “concern for the foreign policy of the United States” and accused him of supporting Hamas. He said the accusations against him are false and “deeply racist.”
Khalil’s lawyer said in the letter that his arrest has damaged his reputation and “severely” undermined his search for one day to work in international diplomacy and defense of human rights.
Khalil said he had accepted a position in Oxfam International as a policy advisor, but the job offer was revoked.
“I firmly believe that Rubio’s determination, my arrest and detention, and the public stigma that followed, played an important role in this decision,” he said. “I was not surprised; roles like this depend on your reputation.”
Oxfam International did not immediately respond to a comment request on Friday.
In a separate statement, Khalil’s wife described how he is “afraid of our security.”
“The Mahmoud case has impacted all aspects of our life,” he said. “I have experienced Islamophobia all my life as a Muslim woman who uses a hijab, but has been amplified by the detention and the in the way of Mahmoud. Mahmoud and my careers, our desire for a stable life, and Deen’s future will always be affected by these false allegations against him.”
