Mahmoud Khalil, a student of Palestinian postgraduate studies at Columbia University, who the Trump administration is seeking to deport his role in the pro -Palestinian protests, described himself as a political prisoner on Tuesday, in his first direct comments since his detention.
The detention of Khalil, the permanent resident of the United States, was condemned by multiple human rights groups as an attack on freedom of expression and due legal procedures. More than 100 Democratic legislators of the US House of Representatives questioned the legitimacy of detention in a letter to the administration of Republican President Donald Trump.
The lawyers of the Ministry of Justice say that Khalil, 30, was subject to deportation because Foreign Minister Marco Rubio decided to be in the United States “harmful consequences for foreign policy.”
The Khalil case can be tested, as the courts draw the line between the protected speech guaranteed by citizens and non -citizens alike under the first amendment to the US constitution and the opinion of the executive authority that some protests can undermine foreign policy.
Mahmoud Khalil, a student of Columbia University in the country, was legally arrested by American immigration agents and faces a possible deportation for his involvement in the protests supporting the Palestinians. It is one of the first well -known arrests associated with the Trump administration’s threats against student activists.
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil, and I am a political prisoner,” Khalil said in a letter published on Tuesday.
In the letter, Khalil said, referring to the latest renewable Israeli strikes in Gaza, which the local authorities said: “The arrest was a direct result of the practice of my life freedom, as I invited Palestine free and ending the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in its full power on Monday night.” More than 400 Palestinians were killed.
Khalil’s lawyers urged his release immediately. Khalil became a permanent legal resident last year. His wife is pregnant in eight months.
His arrest on March 8 sparked protests in various American cities, including in New York City on Tuesday when hundreds gathered in the Times Square demanding his release.
Trump pledged to deport pro -Palestinian activists who participated in protests on the campus of the American universities against the Israeli war in Gaza after the Hamas attack in October 2023. Trump claimed that the demonstrators were anti -Semitism and supported Hamas militants.
The defenders supporting the Palestinians, including some Jewish groups, say that their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza is mistakenly mixed with critics against their critics, while their support for Palestinian rights disappears with the support of Hamas’s ancestors. Khalil said in a speech on Tuesday, his arrest indicates the anti -Palestinian racism.
The government did not explain how Khalil could harm our foreign policy. Trump, without evidence, accused him of supporting Hamas. Khalil’s legal team says it has no links to Hamas.
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