New York, New York – In the last afternoon, Mahmoud Khalil sat in his apartment in Manhattan, where he was embracing his 10 -week -old son, thinking about the pre -dawn hours that spent in the cold immigration prison in Louisiana, awaiting the news of the birth of the child in New York.
For a moment, the explicit Palestinian activist found himself unable to speak.
“I cannot describe the pain of that night.” “This is something that I will never forgive.”
Now, after weeks of restoring his freedom, Khalil seeks to recover. On Thursday, his lawyer submitted a claim of $ 20 million as compensation against the Trump administration, who claimed that Khalil was imprisoned falsely, tried harmful and stained as hostile to the North, as the government sought to deport him to his prominent role in the campus protests.
The deposit is called – a lawsuit under the law of federal damages – the Ministry of Internal Security, American Immigration, Customs enforcement and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This comes at a time when the issue of deportation against Khalil, who has recently called for graduate studies at the University of Colombia, continues on his way to the Immigration Court system.
Khalil said that the goal is to send a message that he will not frighten silence.
“They misuse their strength because they believe they cannot be prejudiced,” Khalil said. “Unless they feel a kind of accountability, it will continue not to verify.”
Khalil said that he is planning to exchange any settlement money with others targeted by Trump’s “failed” efforts to suppress the pro -Palestinian speech. Instead of settlement, he also accepted an official apology and changes in administration deportation policies.
In an e -mail statement, Trechia McLeulin, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Internal Security, launched the claim of Khalil “ridiculous”, accusing him of “hateful behavior and discourse” that threatened the Jewish students.
The Foreign Ministry said that its actions towards Khalil were fully supported by the law. Inquiries have not been returned to the White House and the ice immediately.
Harsh conditions and a “ridiculous” claim
Deposit accuses President Donald Trump and other officials of the escalation of a random and illegal campaign “to intimidate him and his family”, starting with the arrest of Khalil on March 8.
That night, he said that he was returning home from dinner with his wife, Nour Abdel -Ala, when he was “actually kidnapped” by ordinary federal agents, who refused to submit a note and seemed that she was surprised by learning that he was a legal resident in the United States.
Then he was transferred overnight to the immigration prison in Gina, Louisiana, a distant site that was “deliberately hidden” from his family and lawyers, according to the file.
Inside, Khalil said that he was deprived of his ulcers, forced to sleep under the harsh fluorescent lights and almost nourish “uninfected” food, causing it to lose 15 rugs (7 kilograms). Khalil recalls, “I cannot remember a night when I didn’t go hungry,” Khalil recalls.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration publicly celebrated the arrest, promised to deport it and the others who called it their protests against Israel, “the activity of the anti -Semitism, anti -American anti -America.”
Khalil, who condemned the anti -Semitism before and since his arrest, has not been accused of a crime and has not been linked to enthusiasm or any other terrorist group. “At some point, it becomes like a reality TV,” Khalil said of the allegations. “It is very ridiculous.”
She was deported to beliefs
A few weeks after his prison, Khalil woke up by a detained colleague, enthusiastically referred to his face on prison TV. A new memorandum signed by Foreign Minister Marco Rubio admitted that Khalil did not break the law, but he argued that he should be deported to beliefs that could undermine US foreign policy interests.
“My beliefs do not want my tax money or tuition fees that are heading towards investments in arms manufacturers for genocide,” Khalil said. “It is simple like that.”
By that time, Khalil became something of the celebrities in locking 1,200 people. When he does not deal with his own case, he hosted the “working hours” for his migrant holders, and they tend to have his previous experience at a British embassy in Beirut to help others organize papers and find translators for their issues.
“I am very good at bureaucracy,” Khalil said.
At night, they played Russian and Mexican card games, where Khalil listened to “a story after another from people who did not understand what was happening to them.”
“This was one of the most surprising moments,” he said. “People at home do not know if they have any rights.”
Loss of time
On June 20, 104 days after the detention, Khalil ordered his release by a federal judge, he found that the government’s efforts to remove him on the basis of foreign policy are unconstitutional.
He is now facing new allegations of distorting personal details to request his green card. In a suggestion that was presented late on Wednesday, Khalil’s lawyers described those charges as unfounded and vengeful, and urged the judge to reject them.
Khalil said that the weeks that have passed since his release had brought moments of bliss and intense personal distress.
For fear of harassment or possible arrest, leaving the house frequently, avoiding large crowds or walking late at night. But he lit up when he remembered a debt as he took the first swimming early in the week. “It was not very fun for him,” said Khalil, smiling.
“I try as much as possible to compensate for time with my son and my wife,” he added. “Likewise, thinking about my future and trying to understand this new reality.”
He said that part of this reality will continue its efforts to defend the Israeli war in Gaza, which killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The day after his release, he led a march through Manhattan, banners in a Palestinian flag – and surrounded by security.
While he was pouring debt milk into a bottle, Khalil thought if he might do anything different if he knew the personal cost of his activity.
“We could communicate better. We could sworn more bridges with more people,” he said. “But the main thing in opposing genocide, I don’t think you can do this differently. This is the necessity of your morals when you see the slaughter of your people at the present time.”
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