Columbia Protest Negotiator Mahmoud Khalil Detained by ICE

On the night of March 8, 2025, Mahmoud Khalil was entering the lobby of his Columbia University apartment building with his wife, Noor Abdalla, who was eight months pregnant, when a plain-clothes officer detained him. Khalil was placed in an unmarked ICE vehicle and later transferred to an immigration detention center in rural Louisiana, more than a thousand miles from his home. He later recalled that ICE agents threatened his pregnant wife before shoving him into the vehicle.

NPRHe was waiting to board an SFO flight to Dallas. Then ICE showed up. Courts Free Iranians From Detention Faster Than ICE Arrests Them Austin woman fights for husband's release from ICE custody while preparing to give birth

Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and fled the country at age 18. He later obtained a green card, giving him legal status to live and work in the United States. In the spring of 2024, he became a prominent negotiator for the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University, acting as a liaison between student protesters and university administrators.

NPR

During the encampment, students nominated Khalil for the negotiator position because of his five-year diplomatic experience with the British Embassy in Beirut and his familiarity with bureaucratic processes. Khalil described Columbia’s response as a “public-relations threat” rather than an engagement with students grieving the situation in Palestine.

NPR

He shared a cell with over 70 other men, noting constant lighting, lack of privacy, and pervasive “despair in these men’s eyes.” Detainees were repeatedly called “criminals” despite having no criminal records. Khalil said the facility’s isolation—being an hour from the nearest airport—was designed to pressure detainees to abandon legal challenges quickly.

NPR

Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly declared that Khalil should be deported, invoking a rarely used provision applicable to permanent residents. No criminal charges have ever been filed against Khalil. ICE has not released detailed statements about the specific grounds for his detention, but the agency’s broader policy under the current administration has shifted toward stricter enforcement of immigration violations, including arrests of individuals with pending green-card applications.

NPR

Khalil’s detention highlights the intersection of immigration enforcement with campus activism. His case illustrates how ICE can target individuals with legal permanent-resident status who are politically visible, raising questions about the use of immigration law as a tool to suppress dissent. The reported conditions in the Louisiana facility also contribute to ongoing debates about the humanitarian standards of U.S. immigration detention centers. As Khalil continues to fight his case, his experience underscores the personal toll on families—particularly when a pregnant spouse is forced to listen to a birth over a payphone—and the broader implications for civil-rights advocacy on college campuses.

NPR