Mahmoud Khalil has called himself a “political prisoner” in his first direct remarks to the public since federal immigration agents arrested him without a warrant on March 8 in Columbia University housing. In a letter dictated over the phone from an ICE jail in Jena, Louisiana, Khalil decried his arrest, anti-Palestinian racism by both the Biden and Trump administrations and the inhumane conditions faced by immigrant detainees. His open letter reads, “My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza. While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.” Mahmoud Khalil is a green card holder; his wife, Noor Abdalla, is a U.S. citizen who’s eight months pregnant. Khalil’s legal team has filed a motion with a federal court in New York asking for his immediate release.

Read the full letter.