US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a private prison contractor have refused to allow Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil to hold his newborn son, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in what advocates describe as a retaliatory act linked to his pro-Palestine activism.
Khalil, 30, a legal permanent US resident, was arrested in March at his university-owned apartment in New York City for taking part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia. He has remained detained at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center for over two months, while his immigration case proceeds in New Jersey.
"After flying over a thousand miles to Louisiana with our newborn son, his very first flight, all so his father could finally hold him in his arms, ICE has denied us even this most basic human right," said his wife, Noor Abdalla, in a statement issued via the ACLU.
"This is not just heartless. It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse," she added.
Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.
The ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights said Khalil’s legal team had submitted multiple formal requests for a contact visit, citing federal guidelines that support child-parent visitation. But ICE and GEO Group, the prison contractor, denied the request, citing a "blanket no-contact visitation policy" at the facility and vague "security concerns" regarding a mother and newborn in an unsecure area.
"The government chose to arrest and detain Mahmoud thousands of miles away to punish him for his support of Palestinian human rights," said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights.
According to a New York Times report, a federal judge in New Jersey, Michael E. Farbiarz, ordered on Wednesday evening that Mr Khalil be granted one meeting with his wife and lawyers. However, the order did not explicitly permit him to see or hold his son, Deen, who was born on 21 April.
The government argued in court filings that granting a contact visit with his child would amount to offering him special treatment not given to other detainees. ICE officials also claimed that allowing a newborn and mother into the secured facility was unsafe, as the facility does not house women or minors.
Suppressing pro-Palestine voices
Khalil’s arrest was the first in a long crackdown on pro-Palestine voices in the US.
A few days after Khalil's arrest, Trump's claim came due after another pro-Palestine student, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, was arrested. His attorney said he was arrested because of the Palestinian identity of his wife.
After the arrest of Suri, authorities went after another pro-Palestine student, Momodou Taal, asking him to turn himself in.
On March 25, Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student, said she sued the Trump administration to stop her deportation from the US over her participation in a pro-Palestine protest last Spring.
Also on March 25, Rumeysa Ozturk, who is a Tufts University PhD student, was kidnapped in broad daylight by US authorities over criticising Israel's carnage in Gaza.
On April 14, authorities arrested Mohsen Mahdawi during his citizenship interview before he was released on April 30.
