{"id":82,"date":"2026-05-23T05:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=82"},"modified":"2026-05-23T05:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:10:07","slug":"my-name-is-mahmoud-khalil-and-i-am-a-political-prisoner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=82","title":{"rendered":"My Name is Mahmoud Khalil and I Am a Political Prisoner"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<article>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><em>The contents of this letter have not been edited and were first published by The\u00a0Guardian.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=80\">\u201cIf I Must Die,\u201d A Poem by Refaat Alareer<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I\u00a0am a\u00a0political prisoner. I\u00a0am writing to you from a\u00a0detention facility in <\/span><span>Louisiana where I\u00a0wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices <\/span><span>underway against a\u00a0great many people precluded from the protections of the\u00a0law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn\u2019t the <\/span><span>Senegalese man I\u00a0met who has been deprived of his liberty for a\u00a0year, his legal situation in limbo and his <\/span><span>family an ocean away. It isn\u2019t the <span>21<\/span>-year-old detainee I\u00a0met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, <\/span><span>only to be deported without so much as a\u00a0hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Justice escapes the contours of this nation\u2019s immigration\u00a0facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On March <span>8<\/span>, I\u00a0was taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a\u00a0warrant, and accosted my wife and me <\/span><span>as we returned from dinner. By now, the footage of that night has been made public. Before I\u00a0knew what <\/span><span>was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car. At that moment, my only concern <\/span><span>was for Noor\u2019s safety. I\u00a0had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her <\/span><span>for not leaving my side. DHS would not tell me anything for hours\u2009\u2014\u2009I did not know the cause of my <\/span><span>arrest or if I\u00a0was facing immediate deportation. At <span>26<\/span> Federal Plaza, I\u00a0slept on the cold floor. In the early <\/span><span>morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I\u00a0slept on the <\/span><span>ground and was refused a\u00a0blanket despite my\u00a0request.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>My arrest was a\u00a0direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I\u00a0advocated for a\u00a0free <\/span><span>Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January\u2019s <\/span><span>ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced <\/span><span>to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle <\/span><span>for their complete\u00a0freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>I was born in a\u00a0Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to a\u00a0family which has been displaced from their land <\/span><span>since the <span>1948<\/span> Nakba. I\u00a0spent my youth in proximity to yet distant from my homeland. But being <\/span><span>Palestinian is an experience that transcends borders. I\u00a0see in my circumstances similarities to Israel\u2019s use <\/span><span>of administrative detention\u2009\u2014\u2009imprisonment without trial or charge\u2009\u2014\u2009to strip Palestinians of their rights. <\/span><span>I\u00a0think of our friend Omar Khatib, who was incarcerated without charge or trial by Israel as he returned <\/span><span>home from travel. I\u00a0think of Gaza hospital director and pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was <\/span><span>taken captive by the Israeli military on December <span>27<\/span> and remains in an Israeli torture camp today. For <\/span><span>Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is\u00a0commonplace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I have always believed that my duty is not only to liberate myself from the oppressor, but also to liberate <\/span><span>my oppressors from their hatred and fear. My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism <\/span><span>that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past <span>16<\/span> months as the U.S. has <\/span><span>continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention. For <\/span><span>decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to <\/span><span>violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I\u00a0am being <\/span><span>targeted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=78\">I Went to Pedophile Island and All I Got Was This Lousy Shirt!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>While I\u00a0await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled <\/span><span>my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean <\/span><span>Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining <\/span><span>pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing\u2009\u2014\u2009based on racism and disinformation\u2014<\/span><span>to go\u00a0unchecked.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a\u00a0new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due <\/span><span>process and silence students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing <\/span><span>student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration\u2019s latest threats. My arrest, the <\/span><span>expulsion or suspension of at least <span>22<\/span> Columbia students\u2009\u2014\u2009some stripped of their B.A. degrees just <\/span><span>weeks before graduation\u2009\u2014\u2009and the expulsion of SWC President Grant Miner on the eve of contract <\/span><span>negotiations, are clear\u00a0examples.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If anything, my detention is a\u00a0testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion <\/span><span>toward Palestinian liberation. Students have long been at the forefront of change\u2009\u2014\u2009leading the charge <\/span><span>against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement, and driving the struggle <\/span><span>against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who <\/span><span>steer us toward truth and\u00a0justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a\u00a0broader strategy to suppress dissent. Visa-holders, <\/span><span>green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, <\/span><span>students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake <\/span><span>are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of\u00a0all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I\u00a0hope nonetheless to be free to <\/span><span>witness the birth of my first-born\u00a0child.<\/span><span><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=73\">Dick Cheney Will Be Tortured in Hell<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A letter dictated by Mahmoud Khalil over the phone from ICE detention in Louisiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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