A video launched on Friday afternoon reveals the second Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil was taken into custody in entrance of his eight-months pregnant spouse.
The eight-minute clip, launched by his attorneys, exhibits plainclothes immigration authorities confronting the married couple within the foyer of their university-owned residence on the evening of Saturday, March 8. How the brokers obtained contained in the constructing was not clear from the video.
The brokers confront Khalil, saying: “You’re gonna be under arrest, so turn around.”
Khalil, 30, a latest worldwide relations graduate scholar of Palestinian descent, served as a negotiator throughout final 12 months’s campus protests in opposition to Israeli navy exercise in Gaza. A inexperienced card holder, he’s at present being detained in Louisiana after a federal choose paused makes an attempt to deport him.
The Trump administration has not accused Khalil of breaking any legal guidelines however mentioned his participation within the demonstrations in opposition to Columbia’s funding ties to Israel make him a terrorist sympathizer. His arrest and detainment have sparked nationwide protests about free speech below President Trump.
Within the video, Khalil is holding his telephone as brokers begin to place him in handcuffs. He tries at hand the system to his spouse, Noor Abdalla, so she will be able to converse with a lawyer who had been advising him for the final half 12 months as he was below college investigation. An agent instructs him: “Stop resisting.”
“He’s not resisting, he’s giving me his phone. I understand, he’s not resisting,” Abdalla responds.
Video footage exhibits the second Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil is taken into custody in entrance of his eight-months pregnant spouse. (Noor Abdalla by way of ACLU)
The brokers place Khalil’s arms behind his again and cuff him, ordering, “You’re gonna have to come with us.”
“I’m coming with you. Don’t worry,” he replies.
His spouse, who could be heard sniffling or in tears throughout numerous factors of the video, tries to influence the brokers her husband is cooperating. “You guys really don’t need to be doing all of that,” Abdalla says.
“It’s fine,” Khalil assures his spouse, as they lead him to an unmarked automotive.
Video footage exhibits the second Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil is taken into custody in entrance of his eight-months pregnant spouse. (Noor Abdalla by way of ACLU)
Outdoors of the house constructing, Abdalla makes an attempt to get extra info for Khalil’s lawyer — the brokers’ names, the place Khalil goes, and what company they’re from — to little avail. The brokers verify they’re taking her husband to 26 Federal Plaza, the Jacob Ok. Javits federal workplace constructing, in decrease Manhattan. Abdalla is repeatedly directed to remain on the sidewalk.
“Did they tell you they revoked his green card, is that what they said?” she could be heard pleading. “Can they do that?”
Video footage exhibits the second Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil is taken into custody in entrance of his spouse. (Noor Abdalla by way of ACLU)
The video was launched by the American Civil Liberties Union, which not too long ago joined the case arguing for Khalil’s return to New York and supreme launch.
“If the First Amendment means anything,” Brian Hauss, an legal professional on the ACLU, mentioned, “it means that the government can’t abduct you from your home and your family in the middle of the night, throw you in detention halfway across the country, and revoke your green card — just because it doesn’t like what you have to say.”
