Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil has said the Trump administration failed to suppress pro-Palestinian voices, following his release from more than three months in immigration detention.
“My existence is a message” to the Trump administration, he told the BBC after returning to New Jersey from a detention centre in Louisiana. “All these attempts to suppress Pro-Palestinian voices have failed now.”
Mr Khalil was a prominent voice in the New York university’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, and his 8 March arrest sparked demonstrations in New York and Washington DC.
The US government wants to deport him, arguing his activism is detrimental to foreign policy interests.
Speaking at the airport in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday, Mr Khalil vowed to continue to advocate for Palestinian rights, and for the rights of the immigrants “who are left behind in that facility” where he was jailed in Louisiana.
He accused the White House of attempting to “dehumanise anyone who does not agree with the administration”.
He held flowers given to him by supporters, and shouted “free Palestine” as he ended his remarks. He was pushing a pram carrying his baby son, who was born while he was in prison, as he departed the news conference with his wife.
Mr Khalil was joined by New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said his release showed that the Trump administration was losing the legal battle to deport migrants in the US who advocate for Palestinians.
In May, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who co-authored an opinion piece in her campus newspaper that was critical of Israel’s war, was released on bail after weeks in detention. Her deportation hearing is ongoing.
“The Trump administration knows that they are waging a losing legal battle,” the congresswoman said.
“They are violating the law, and they know they are violating the law. And they are trying to use these one-off examples to intimidate everyone else.”
Mr Khalil’s remarks come a day after a judge ordered him released from jail after determining he was not a flight risk or threat to his community while his immigration proceedings continued.
The Trump administration has vowed to appeal against his release, as it continues its efforts to remove him from the US.
“There is no basis for a local federal judge in New Jersey – who lacks jurisdiction – to order Khalil’s release from a detention facility in Louisiana,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Reuters. “We expect to be vindicated on appeal.”
