Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil calls himself a ‘political prisoner’ in new letter
Scott Olson/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil called himself a “political prisoner” in a new letter dictated from the Louisiana detention center where he remains held following his arrest on Columbia University’s campus.
“I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law,” Khalil stated in the letter, which was dictated over the phone to his family and obtained by ABC News from his legal team on Tuesday.
Khalil, a leader of the encampment protests at Columbia last spring, was detained on March 8. He was taken from his student apartment building to 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan, and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to his legal team.
Officials from President Donald Trump’s administration have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas — a claim his legal team has rejected.
In his letter, Khalil recounted the night of his arrest, which occurred while he returned to his residence on Columbia’s campus with his wife, Noor Abdalla, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.
“Before I knew what was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car,” he stated. “At that moment, my only concern was for Noor’s safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side.”
Khalil said he did not know why he was arrested or he faced “immediate deportation.” He claimed the Trump administration is “targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.”
“My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night,” he stated.
Khalil said his detention “is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation.”
“Students have long been at the forefront of change — leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the civil rights movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa,” he stated. “Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice.”
He called on students, as well as advocates and elected officials, to continue to “defend the right to protest” in support of Palestinians.
“At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all,” he stated.
In a recent court filing, Khalil’s attorneys ask for his return to New York from Louisiana, where he is being held pending an appearance in front of an immigration judge later this month.
His attorneys had previously asked for his immediate release in a separate filing.
Khalil said he hopes to be able to see the birth of his child, stating in his letter, “Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
Khalil’s lawyers said that during his detainment, plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said his student visa had been revoked — even though Khalil is in the U.S. on a green card. He has not been charged with a crime.
A federal judge has blocked Khalil’s removal from the U.S. while weighing a petition challenging his arrest.
He is set to appear before an immigration judge on March 27.
Maiker Escalona was a barber in Venezuela. (Raida)
(NEW YORK) — Over the last month, the Trump administration has sent over 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador to be detained in a notorious mega-prison with a track record of human rights abuses.
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acknowledged that “many” of the men lack criminal records in the United States — but said that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
The families of some of the men — who learned about their whereabouts by seeing them in promotional videos shared by the El Salvadoran and United States governments — have denied any gang affiliation in court filings and shared their stories with ABC News. They said that they fear for the safety of their loved ones and do not know if they will ever return.
Maiker Espinoza Escalona – Deported to El Salvador under Title 8 on March 30
Escalona was detained by U.S. authorities last year when he tried to enter the United States to seek asylum with his partner Yorely Bernal Inciarte and their one-year old baby.
The family was immediately separated, with Escalona sent to a detention center in El Paso, Texas.
On Sunday, Escalona was deported to El Salvador under Title 8, with authorities alleging he was a member of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — an accusation his family denies.
“They are liars,” said Raida, Inciarte’s mother, of the Trump administration. “I cannot believe that half of Venezuela is Tren de Aragua. That can’t be.”
According to Escalona’s sister, he entered the United States to pursue a career as a barber and does not have a criminal record in Venezuela. She suspects he and his wife were detained based on their tattoos.
“He finished high school, he took courses in barbering and set up his barbershop in Venezuela. But things got a bit tough in Venezuela, so he emigrated to have a better life,” she said.
Jose Franco Caraballo Tiapa – Deported to El Salvador on March 15
Tiapa, a 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant who was seeking asylum in the U.S., was detained by immigration officials during a routine ICE check-in last month.
His wife Ivannoa Sanchez told ABC News she believes her husband is one of the hundreds of Venezuelan men who earlier this month was sent by plane to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
According to Sanchez, the couple crossed the U.S. border in November 2023 and surrendered to authorities. After claiming asylum and being detained for a few days, ICE released them and ordered them to check in routinely with the federal agency.
Sanchez said the couple had gone to several of their scheduled check-ins without experiencing any issues. But on Feb. 3, Tiapa was not allowed to return home with his wife despite being scheduled to have his first court appearance in his asylum case in March.
Sanchez provided ABC News with documents that confirmed Tiapa’s scheduled appointment with an immigration judge on March 19. She also provided ABC News with documents that show Tiapa does not have a criminal record in Venezuela.
“He went to his routine ICE appointment and he didn’t come out,” Sanchez told ABC News.
Sanchez said that after being detained in Dallas, her husband was transferred to a detention center in Laredo, Texas, where she was able to speak with him regularly. In mid-March, she said her husband told her that he believed he was going to be transferred and possibly deported, and she now believes he is detained in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.
“He has never done anything, not even a fine, absolutely nothing,” Sanchez said of her husband. “We chose this country because it offers more security, more freedom, more peace of mind. But we didn’t know it would turn into chaos.”
Francisco Garcia Casique – Deported to El Salvador on March 15
Garcia Casique was detained by immigration authorities last month after going to an ICE office for a routine appointment, his brother told ABC News.
Garcia Casique originally entered the United States in December 2023 and surrendered to authorities, according to his brother Sebastian. After appearing before an immigration judge, Garcia Casique was released with an ankle monitor. A review of federal court records found no criminal court cases associated with Garcia Casique.
According to his brother, Garcia Casique was a professional barber who aspired to start a career in the United States.
“[He] was hoping for a better future to help us, help all the family members, and look at the situation now,” his brother said.
Earlier this month, Garcia Casique called his family from the detention center in Texas where he was being held to let them know that he believed he was being deported to Venezuela. A few days later, his family recognized his brother in a photo posted on social media by the White House.
“It’s a nightmare,” his brother told ABC News.
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia – Deported to El Salvador on March 15 due to ‘administrative error’
Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran national who has two U.S. family members and protected legal status — was sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison due to an “administrative error,” according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
Abrego Garcia entered the United States in 2011 when he was 16 to escape gang violence in El Salvador, according to his lawyers. He received a form of protected legal status in 2019, married a U.S. citizen, and has a 5-year-old child.
Earlier this month, he was detained by ICE officials who informed him that his immigration status had changed, sending him to a detention center in Texas before being removing him to El Salvador on Mar. 15.
While the Trump administration has argued that Abrego Garcia is a MS-13 member who is a “danger to the community,” his attorneys said that he “is not a member of” and “has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang,” and that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.”
Jerce Reyes Barrios – Deported to El Salvador on March 15
Reyes Barrios was a professional soccer player in Venezuela who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border legally in 2024 after being detained and tortured by the Maduro regime, according to his attorney Linette Tobin.
He was immediately detained after authorities accused him of being a member of TdA based on what they said was a gang-affiliated tattoo, and they claimed a photo showed him throwing up gang signs. However, the tattoo in question was an homage to the Real Madrid soccer team logo adorned with a rosary and the word “Dios” meaning God, according to the artist who did the piece.
Barrios did not have a criminal record in Venezuela, according to government records reviewed by ABC News, and he worked as a professional soccer player and children’s soccer coach.
“He collaborates with the schools to teach children his techniques. A lot of children admire him because he’s a goalie,” his family member Ayari del Carmen Pedroza Guerrero said in an interview with ABC News.
Border czar Tom Homan defended Barrios’ removal when pressed about the lack of evidence regarding his alleged gang affiliation by ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
“We got to count on the men and women who do this every day for a living, who designated these people as a members of TdA, through, like I said, various law enforcement methods,” Homan said. “This will be litigated.”
(CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich.) — An elderly man with dementia was rescued by officials after his foot got stuck in a window and he ended up dangling from the second-story of his home in Michigan, the Canton Township Police Department told ABC News.
The incident, which occurred on April 12 at approximately 2:49 a.m., was captured on police body-worn camera footage, showing officers on the ground building a human pyramid to attempt to free the dangling man while others inside the home supported him with cables.
In the footage reviewed by ABC News, the man can be heard screaming, “I can’t hold this much longer, I really can’t.”
The man’s wife, Lynnette Barnett, told ABC Detroit affiliate WXYZ that her husband, who is in the late stages of dementia, was trying to get out of the room, was unsure how, so he decided to leave through the window.
“He’s not steady on his feet, the window he chose to come out of is the only window in the house that you need to prop open, because if you don’t prop it open, it will fall shut,” Barnett told WXYZ.
If the window had not shut on the man’s foot, Barnett said her husband “would have been dead.”
Officials, along with the help of “swift-acting neighbors” who provided a ladder, were successfully able to return the man to safety, intervening in a way that “saved this man’s life and prevented a tragedy,” Canton Police Chief Chad Baugh said in a statement to ABC News.
“This incident reflects the heart of public service, and we remain committed to working with every available resource to provide wraparound support for those facing cognitive challenges,” Baugh said.
(NEW YORK) — Government lawyers say officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) did not have a warrant for Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest when they took him into custody last month, according to a filing submitted in the case.
Khalil’s lawyers say the admission contradicts what officers told Khalil and his lawyers at the time of his arrest and in a subsequent arrest report.
In the filing, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security said Khalil, a green card holder and permanent legal resident, was served with a warrant once he was brought into an ICE office in New York after his arrest.
The officers “had exigent circumstances to conduct the warrantless arrest, it is the pattern and practice of DHS to fully process a respondent once in custody with an I-200 (warrant) as part of that intake processing,” government lawyers wrote.
DHS claimed its officers were not required to obtain a warrant for Khalil’s arrest, in part, because they had reasons to believe it was likely “he would escape before they could obtain a warrant.”
In the filing, DHS attorneys said agents approached Khalil inside the foyer of his Columbia-owned apartment building and claimed that, while his wife went to retrieve his identification, Khalil told them he was going to leave the scene.
“The HSI supervisory agent believed there was a flight risk and arrest was necessary,” the filing stated.
Khalil’s lawyers have pushed back on the claim that he was uncooperative with authorities.
In a sworn declaration submitted in court last month, attorney Amy Greer, who was on the phone with Khalil’s wife at the time of his arrest, said an agent at the scene told her they had an administrative warrant.
“I asked the basis of the warrant, and he said the U.S. Department of State revoked Mahmoud’s student visa,” Greer said. “When I told Agent Hernandez that Mahmoud does not have a student visa because he is a green card holder and permanent resident in the U.S., he said DHS revoked the green card, too,” she wrote in the declaration.
Khalil’s lawyers say the warrantless arrest is one of the reasons he should be released.
“That night, I was on the phone with Mahmoud, Noor, and even the arresting agent,” Greer said in a statement. “In the face of multiple agents in plain clothes who clearly intended to abduct him, and despite the fact that those agents repeatedly failed to show us a warrant, Mahmoud remained calm and complied with their orders. Today we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant – they didn’t have one.
The statement went on to say: “This is clearly yet another desperate attempt by the Trump administration to justify its unlawful arrest and detention of human rights defender Mahmoud Khalil, who is now, by the government’s own tacit admission, a political prisoner of the United States.”
An immigration judge earlier this month ruled that Khalil, a leader of Columbia’s encampment protests in the spring of 2024, could be deported on grounds that he threatens foreign policy, as alleged by the Trump administration.
