NEW YORK (AP) – A Colombian alumni facing deportation for Palestinian parental activities on campus has outlined the “irreparable harm” caused by the continued detention when a federal judge considered his release.
Mahmoud Khalil said Court filings sealed on Thursday The “most immediate visceral harm” he faced in the months he was detained in Louisiana has something to do with missing out on the birth of his first child in April.
“Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I leaned down on the floor of a detention center and whispered a crackling phone line while she worked alone,” the 30-year-old legal US resident wrote. “When I heard my son’s first cry, I buried my face in my arm, so no one could see me crying.”
He also cited the harm of “career end” from the ordeal, noting that Oxfam International has already revoked its job offer as a policy advisor.
Even his mother’s visa, even coming to the US to help care for his young son, is still under federal review, Halil said.
“As someone who was prosecuted in Syria for my political beliefs, I never imagined I would be in immigrant detention here in the United States,” he wrote. “Why should this indiscriminate killing of the Israeli government be protested against the killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians, or will it lead to erosion of my constitutional rights?”
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Halil’s 13-page statement was in a Number of legal declarations His lawyer submitted, highlighting the widespread negative consequences of his arrest.
His U.S. citizen wife, Dr. Noor Abdallah; I explained the issue That her husband has not helped her to navigate the birth of her son and the first weeks of his young life.
Columbia students and professors wrote about the calm effects of Halil’s arrest on campus life.
Last week, a federal judge in New Jersey said Trump administration’s efforts to deport Halil It could violate the constitution.
Judge Michael Farbeers wrote the main justification of the government to eliminate Halil – his belief is It could pose a threat US foreign policy can open the door to ambiguous and arbitrary enforcement.
That’s what Halil was like Detained by a federal immigration agent On March 8, Trump’s first arrest under an expanded deadline for students who joined campus in the lobby of his university-owned apartment Israel’s war in Gaza.
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