The wife of pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil gave birth to their first child when he remains in detention of immigration and customs.
Khalil, who is detained in a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, was denied a request for temporary liberation to meet their son, according to emails examined by ABC News.
Khalil’s lawyers asked for two weeks leave, noting that his wife, Dr. Abdalla, had entered work “eight days earlier than expected”, an email addressed to the director of the Director of the New Orleans Field Office Ice Ero, Mellissa B. Harper.
In the email, lawyers also recommended that Khalil can be placed in the ankle monitor and could make recordings with ice.
Mahmoud Khalil talks to the media members of the Rafah camp revolt at Columbia University during the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, New York, June 1, 2024.
Jeenah Moon / Reuters
Harper refused the request, writing in an email: “After examining the information submitted and an examination of the case of your customer, your request for leave is refused.”
Dr. Noor Abdalla published a statement after birth, saying: “My son and I should not navigate his first days on Earth without Mahmoud. Ice and the Trump administration stole these precious moments from our family in order to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom.”
On April 11, an immigration judge ruled that Khalil was removable after the Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a section of the law which deemed him expeling because the government said that its continuous presence in the United States would have an unfavorable consequence on foreign policy.
The Louisiana judge gave Khalil lawyers for a deadline of April 23 to submit rescue requests to stop his expulsion. The judge said that if they had not made the deadline, she would file a referral order to Syria or Algeria.
While a student at Columbia University, Khalil was part of a Protestant leadership group against the war in Gaza. Khalil participated in negotiations with school administrators demanding that the institution has reduced links with Israel and disinvesting from Israeli companies. Khalil completed his higher education in Columbia in December and is expected to graduate in the spring.
He was arrested by immigration and customs application in his Columbia accommodation in March.
