The student of the student of the University of Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil, published on Monday new images of the minutes prior to his arrest of March that, they say, contradicts the government’s argument that it was a risk of escape, what the authorities had justified justified their arrest without an arrest warrant.
The Columbia activist who helped organize pro-palestinian demonstrations on the campus a year ago has been held in a detention center in Louisiana for two months. The head of the green card born in Syria has been fighting her arrest and deportation since her arrest, which was the first under the promised campaign of the White House administration against the students who protested the war in Gaza.
The five -minute security images were obtained by Khalil’s legal team through a citation, with which he met Columbia University. The video has no sound, and the faces of the ice agents are blurred. The clip was removed from five hours of footage that Columbia University delivered to Khalil’s legal team.
The video begins in the lobby of the New York City Apartment building in Khalil with him talking to his lawyer by phone and interacting with the four ice officers, while Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, walks towards a corridor. Abdalla, according to Khalil’s legal team, went to obtain Khalil’s green card from his apartment.
You can also see Khalil interacting with the ice agents and giving them their phone twice to talk to their lawyer, his legal team said. Khalil seems calm and cooperative, and at one time it seems to laugh with the agents.
At the end of the video, Abdalla returns to the lobby and gives Khalil his green card, which he gives to the agents. The video ends after Khalil gives them their green card.
In April, the government said in judicial documents that ICE agents allowed Abdalla to obtain the “Khalil conditional residence card that was located in his apartment, instead of arresting him”, while Khalil and the agents “remained in the lobby.”
The Government declared in his judicial presentation that the agents asked Khalil to cooperate while trying to verify his identification, but the defendant declared that he would not cooperate and that he was going to leave the scene. ”
“The HSI supervision agent believed that there was a risk of escape and that an arrest was necessary,” the presentation said.
The Department of National Security and the Department of Justice did not respond immediately on Monday night to the requests for comments on the recently published security video.
NBC News previously reported video images of the moment of his arrest, which showed Khalil cooperating and telling the officers: “Yes, I will come with you.” That video was taken by Khalil’s wife.
Kahlil’s legal team said the last video provides strength for his fight.
“The world now knows ICE carefully arrested Mahmoud in retaliation for his defense of Palestinian rights and lives,” said Ramzi Kassem, co -director of the creation of responsibility and responsibility for the application of the Law (Clear), a legal assistance group at the Law Faculty of the University of New York City, on Monday. “After the Government finally admitted that the agents did not even have an administrative order for the arrest of Mahmoud, this video is the nail in the coffin of ICE’s lies: it shows, simple as the day, that Mahmoud was calm and collected and that he never tried to run.”
Khalil has not been accused of criminal conduct, but the Trump administration has argued that he should be expelled from the country for his beliefs.
The administration has argued that the authority has to deport Khalil because “he directed activities aligned with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
NBC News reviewed more than 100 pages of documents presented by the federal government in its effort to deport Khalil, which showed that the government seemed to depend on not verified tabloid items on it.
Last month, an immigration judge in Louisiana affirmed the federal government argument that Khalil’s beliefs threaten national security and justify their deportation.
Days later, New Jersey district judge, Michael Farbiar, ruled that Kahlil could continue his struggle for freedom in the Federal Court.
His legal team has said that “he will continue to work tirelessly until Mahmoud is free.”
