Detained Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was unable to attend the birth of his first child, after US federal immigration authorities refused his lawyers’ plea for temporary release, his wife has said.
Khalil, 30, an activist who volunteered as a spokesperson during the university’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, was arrested on 8 March outside his apartment in New York.
He has been held for more than a month at a detention facility in Louisiana while the Trump administration attempts to have him deported.
After his wife Dr Noor Abdalla went into labour on Sunday — eight days earlier than expected — Khalil’s lawyers sought to have the family briefly reunited.
In an email sent to US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the lawyers said their client was willing to accept “any combination of conditions”, including wearing an ankle monitor throughout his temporary release.
However, Melissa B Harper, the ICE field office director in New Orleans, rejected the request within an hour of it being made, according to an email she sent to the lawyers.
“After consideration of the submitted information and a review of your client’s case, your request for furlough is denied,” she wrote.
Abdalla, who gave birth on Monday in New York, called it “a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer.”
“My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud,” she added. “ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom.”
Khalil was the first person to be arrested in US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students involved in demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Shortly after his arrest, Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and has Algerian citizenship, said through his lawyers that he was being held as “a political prisoner.”
The Trump administration, which has not accused Khalil of a crime, is attempting to deport him on the alleged grounds that he is a threat to US foreign policy.
Last month, an immigration judge in Louisiana, who like other immigration judges is supervised by the US Justice Department, said this satisfied the requirements for deportation.
Khalil’s lawyers are appealing this decision. In a separate case in federal court, they are contesting the legality of his detention.
Additional sources • AP
