The 8-month pregnant wife of pro-Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil has pled for her husband's release in time for the birth of their baby, following his arrest and detention by federal immigration officers over the weekend.
"For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby. I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world," she told Newsweek in a statement issued via her husband's attorney, Amy E. Greer.
"Please release Mahmoud now," said his wife, who was not named by the lawyers when asked by Newsweek nor in legal papers filed Sunday challenging Khalil's detention.
Why It Matters
Syrian-born Khali, a permanent U.S. resident and Columbia University graduate, played a key role in last year's Gaza war protests at the Ivy League's campus in New York City.
He was arrested in the city on Saturday and transferred more than 1,000 miles away to the Central Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center.
President Donald Trump, who has pledged to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, has called the arrest "the first arrest of many to come."
A federal judge on Monday halted the Trump administration's attempt to deport Khalil.
About 3,000 protesters demonstrated Khalil's detention in Lower Manhattan on Monday afternoon, police said. An online petition demanding his release has been signed by more than 2 million people.
What to Know
Khalil served as a mediator between pro-Palestinian protestors and the Columbia University administration during negotiations over tent encampments last year. He was also a member of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group.
He was approached by federal agents at his Columbia University student housing home on Saturday.
In a legal filing Sunday, his lawyer said "the agents stated that they were detaining him because his student visa had been revoked by the U.S. Department of State. When [Khalil] showed the officers his immigration documents demonstrating that he is a lawful permanent resident—not a student visa holder—they arrested him anyway, saying that his green card had also been revoked, but providing no basis for the revocation."
His lawyers are seeking Khalil's return to New York from Louisiana.
'My Rock, My Home'
Khalil's wife described him as a devoted husband and a selfless advocate for others. "Mahmoud is my rock, my home, and my happy place," she said.
She said he has an "incredible character, humbleness, selflessness, and love for helping others" and always put others before himself.
Khalil remains in good health and high spirits, his attorney said. Her client is "moved by the extraordinarily broad and steadfast support he has received," she added.
President Trump has been outspoken against last year's protests on college campuses, in which pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups clashed over the Gaza conflict. He previously warned foreign students acting as "terrorist sympathisers" would face deportation.
Trump has specifically criticized Columbia University for its response to last year's student protests. On Friday, his administration withdrew $400 million in federal funding from the university, accusing it of failing to address campus antisemitism.
"All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests," the president wrote on Truth Social last week.
What People Are Saying
Khalil's wife said in a statement shared with Newsweek: "For everyone who has met Mahmoud they can attest to his incredible character, humbleness, selflessness, and his love for helping others. He is always willing to stand up for the oppressed. He is funny, kind and sometimes a little messy. He constantly puts his needs last when it comes to helping others. I always tell him that sometimes he needs to put himself first. He always responds with, 'People are made for each other, and you should always be willing to lend a helping hand.'
Trump posted on Truth Social: "Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it."
Amy E. Greer, attorney for Khalil said in a statement shared in Newsweek: "The remarks by government officials, including the President, on social media only confirm the purpose – and illegality – of Mahmoud's detention. He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment. While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so. The government's objective is as transparent as it is unlawful, and our role as Mahmoud's lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail."
New York Attorney General Letitia James, on X: "I am extremely concerned about the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an advocate and legal permanent resident of Palestinian descent. My office is monitoring the situation, and we are in contact with his attorney."
What Happens Next
A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
