LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Mahmoud Khalil captured the nation's attention last year when he was taken from the lobby of his student housing by plain-clothes ICE agents, even though he was a legal permanent resident.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ICE AGENT: You're going to be under arrest.
MAHMOUD KHALIL: I can't see. I can't see.
UNIDENTIFIED ICE AGENT: So turn around. Turn around. Turn around. Turn around.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: OK, OK.
FADEL: For nearly a year now, technically, Khalil has been free, but...
KHALIL: The Trump administration has consistently tried to push me out of the country. So I have so many legal battles, so I do that now full time.
FADEL: Federal officials have painted Khalil as an anti-Semite and a Hamas supporter for leading student protests at Columbia University against Israel's war in Gaza, but in all this time, they've provided no proof of these claims. A recent federal court ruling would have allowed the administration to detain Khalil again, so he plans to take that to the Supreme Court to review. He contends he's being targeted for his speech.
Recently, Khalil came to our bureau in New York City, where he still lives with his wife and his baby, Deen, who was born while he was in detention. At one point in our conversation about his case, he read a passage of an essay he wrote about how his life has been forever changed.
KHALIL: (Reading) The Trump administration unlawfully arrested me at my home and detained me for 104 days. I walk free now, only after an army of lawyers sued the administration for targeting me because of my pro-Palestine speech. But the government is relentless in targeting me, still using every road and alleyway it can find to punish me with the legal system and bureaucracy. So when I walk, I watch my back. When someone falls in step behind me, I stop, tie my shoe, check my phone and wait until they pass. Before I leave home, I put on sunglasses and a baseball cap - a different color each day. I can't afford cabs every day, so I ride in the last subway car. It's less crowded, fewer eyes. I keep my head down, reading a book, so I don't have to look up. My face may not be widely recognizable, but it takes only one person to ruin my day or my life.
FADEL: I mean, that's what it's like?
KHALIL: Yeah. I mean, now I came on the subway. You can see I have my cap, my sunglasses.
FADEL: Oh, that's right.
KHALIL: Yeah. I mean, I can't really, like, walk outside without them. Like, I have to make all these calculations whenever I want to do anything. Like, I don't go out alone with Deen, my son, just fearing something may happen. So I think that...
FADEL: Fearing what will happen?
KHALIL: There's two things. The first one is whether, you know, ICE would come and pick me up off the street, or, you know, like, it only takes one person to do something bad, like an assassination attempt. Because currently, unfortunately, people get their news from Twitter, from all these hate groups, and someone may believe what's been said about me and come and act upon it. And just to be clear now, over one year following my detention, the administration has not presented any piece of evidence that I did anything wrong.
FADEL: Right. The - and they had gone on television and said that you were a Hamas supporter, that you were passing out Hamas flyers, that you were an anti-Semite.
KHALIL: And I challenge them to present any piece of evidence that either I have links to Hamas or any other groups, or even if I said anything antisemitic. I mean, that's protected by First Amendment speech, but I still disagree with it. And I know that they will never find any of that.
FADEL: Many immigration advocates see Khalil's case as a prelude to the immigration crackdown that followed in LA, in Chicago, in Minneapolis. Khalil says that's why he hasn't given up his legal battle.
KHALIL: A lot of people ask, like, why are you fighting? You can just leave. I can just leave. But first, what happened to me is wrong, and I want to fight it until the end. Pro-Palestine speech is rightful speech in this country. It's legal speech.
And the second thing is, I really want to raise my son in this country, as someone who's deprived from his country - from Palestine. My wife, she was born in the country, so I want her to be closer to her family too. So this is why I continue to fight this case despite the risk. If I win it, I can leave. Like, that's not a huge problem. But I don't want to flee from the fight.
FADEL: Are you in constant anticipation that you'll be picked up again, taken again?
KHALIL: Now I think legally they can't do that, but that's the main problem - that, like, they are not acting according to the law. So we have assurances from the government and the court that they cannot detain me until the Supreme Court hears my case, but the thing now is this administration is lawless. They can arbitrary (ph) detain you. And that's what I fear and that...
FADEL: That you don't feel like you know the lines?
KHALIL: Exactly.
FADEL: I wonder, how old is Deen now?
KHALIL: He's 13 months.
FADEL: So he just turned 1.
KHALIL: Yeah.
FADEL: What'd you do for his first birthday?
KHALIL: We had a nice party with so many people.
FADEL: (Laughter).
KHALIL: So we had, like, over 70 people...
FADEL: Really?
KHALIL: ...At his party (laughter), mostly lawyers.
FADEL: Oh, mostly lawyers?
KHALIL: So...
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: Mostly lawyers. That's funny when you tell him about his first birthday party. When you think about a future, when Deen's old enough, what do you think about telling him and explaining to him about this moment?
KHALIL: I believe I would tell him about his father, who refused to give up his rights and give up speaking out for his people, that his father continued to speak out for Palestinian rights despite the risks. And I really hope that he wouldn't be involved in protests and anything about Palestine because hopefully, by then, our rights - like, the occupation ends. We have our rights. But if not, I want to impress on him the lesson that, like, you have to advocate for your people and those who are losing their rights, whether they are your people or not, because at the end of the day, we are all one.
FADEL: Mahmoud Khalil, thank you so much for speaking with me.
KHALIL: Thank you so much, Leila.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: NPR asked the Department of Homeland Security why it's still pursuing a case against Mahmoud Khalil. A department spokesperson said the Trump administration, quote, "acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority with respect to Khalil," while providing no evidence of its allegations. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told NPR Khalil obtained a student visa by fraud and misrepresentation, but in the court case, they accuse him of lying about his work history on a green card application. Khalil says that accusation is not true. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
