Mahmoud Khalil on exile, liberation and Ice detention: It was a clear act of cruelty'

"When a history of resistance to the lurching authoritarianism of Donald Trump's second presidency is written, it could well begin on 11 April 2025, inside a small immigration courtroom in remote, central Louisiana. It was there, in the early afternoon, that a slight young man dressed in a blue uniform jumpsuit spoke calmly but directly to the new administration away from the gaze of television cameras and 1,000 miles (1,610km) from his friends and family."

"Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and Palestinian organiser, had been arrested a month earlier snatched from the lobby of his Manhattan apartment building as he returned home with his wife. Now, detained in the small town of Jena, he sat before a judge who had just ruled that he was eligible to be deported from the United States purely for his political views. Khalil asked for permission to speak."

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and Palestinian organiser, was arrested in Manhattan and transferred to ICE detention in Jena, Louisiana. A judge ruled he was eligible for deportation from the United States based solely on his political views. Khalil addressed the court, asserting that promised due process and fundamental fairness were absent and characterising the proceedings as a kangaroo court. He said the administration sent him 1,000 miles from his family to punish and deport him. The arrest was among several high‑profile detentions of students seized by immigration agents for their politics, generating fear.

Read at www.theguardian.com