Anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil said he plans to continue his pro-Palestinian advocacy work and bashed the US government upon landing in New Jersey Saturday on his way home to New York City after being held in a Louisiana immigration detention facility for three months.
“I just want to go back and just continue the work that I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights – speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished, as this administration wants to do,” Khalil said Saturday at a press conference at Newark Liberty International Airport.
“The US government is funding this genocide, and Columbia University is investing in this genocide,” he added. “This is what I was protesting. This is what I will continue to protest with everyone of you, not only if they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up again.”
Khalil, 30, was arrested by federal immigration authorities on March 8 and spent 104 days at the rural detention center as the Trump administration fought to deport the Syrian-born permanent resident.
The administration said Khalil engaged in activities “aligned to Hamas,” the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, while he was studying at Columbia.
Khalil was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Newark on Saturday.
“We will continue to resist the politicization and the continued political persecution that ICE is engaged in,” she told reporters.
Khalil was released on bail Friday after New Jersey US District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled Friday that the government had “clearly not met” the standards for detention.
He was flown to Newark Airport en route to New York, where he was expected to reunite with his wife and infant son who was born while he was detained.
Farbiarz said it was “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue detaining a legal resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of violence.
Khalil was released on conditions including the surrender of his passport and travel restrictions limiting him to New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Washington, DC, and Louisiana, where his immigration proceedings will continue, according to reports.
With Post wires
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