Here in New York, a group of students and alumni chained themselves to the gates of Columbia University on Monday, demanding the release of Palestinian student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi. The two are in ICE jails and fighting deportation proceedings after they helped organize campus protests in solidarity with Gaza.
On Monday Mahmoud Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, gave birth to the couple’s first child in New York while her husband remained imprisoned at a Louisiana ICE detention center over a thousand miles away. ICE denied Khalil’s request to be present at the birth. In a statement, Abdalla wrote, “My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom.” Noor Abdalla is a U.S. citizen; Mahmoud Khalil is a U.S. green card holder.
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