AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

Columbia University graduate, Palestinian student, protest leader Mahmoud Khalil has been reunited with his wife and newborn son after being released on bail by a federal judge Friday after spending over 100 days in an ICE jail. He was seized by federal agents March 8. His wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, a U.S. citizen, was eight months pregnant at the time. Mahmoud spoke briefly Saturday after flying from Louisiana to Newark Airport, joined by Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Democracy Now! was at Newark Airport.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re at Newark Airport, and we’re waiting for Mahmoud Khalil to come out. He has just landed. His plane was diverted to Philadelphia then took off again. It’s at Newark right now. He’s playing with his baby, Deen. He’s reunited with his family, and he’s about to walk into the press scrum. And there are a number of people here who are here to greet him, playing drums, they have flowers for him. He’s coming out.

MAHMOUD KHALIL: Well, first, friends, thank you so much for everything. Not only for today, it’s just for every day. Like, just your words, your words of support, your messages have kept me going. Still, the fight is far from over. The genocide’s still happening in Gaza. Israel is still waging a full war against Palestinian – across Palestine. The U.S. government is funding this genocide, and Columbia University is investing in this genocide. This is why I was protesting. This is why I will continue to protest with every one of you. Not only if they threaten me with detention. Even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine. Again, I just want to go back and just continue the work that I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated than – rather than punished, as this administration wants to do. But we’ll take a few questions.

REPORTER 1: Mahmoud, what would you say to the Trump administration? Because they wanted to keep you detained. What is your message for President Trump?

MAHMOUD KHALIL: Just the fact that I’m here, it sends a message. The fact that all these attempts to suppress pro-Palestine voices have failed now. So, this is the message. My existence is the message. The Palestinian existence is the message to this administration.

REPORTER 2: Mahmoud, how does it feel to be free? How does it feel to be free?

MAHMOUD KHALIL: To be honest, [Laugh] I’m still trying to just comprehend that. Of course, it feels great. When I was on the inside, I was free, it’s just I was locked up. The fact that they put me in that place, that didn’t mean that I was not free. I continued to advocate for Palestinians, for the emigrants who are left behind in that facility, that 1,200 men who, all of them, are incredible men, who the Trump administration are trying to portray as whether criminals, or just, like, illegals as they say. And as I said yesterday, whether you are a citizen, an immigrant, anyone, on this land, you’re not illegal. That doesn’t make you less of a human. And this is what the administration is trying to do, to dehumanize me, to dehumanize the immigrants, dehumanize anyone who actually does not agree with what the administration is doing.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Thank you, everyone. First and foremost, I think we speak on behalf of so many people across this country, across the state of New York, but also across so many communities in the United States in welcoming Mahmoud home, to be here and to be reunited with his wife and his newborn son. Mahmoud Khalil was imprisoned for 104 days by this administration, by the Trump administration, with no grounds and for political reasons. Because Mahmoud Khalil is an advocate for Palestinian human rights, he has been accused baselessly of horrific allegations, simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech. This was a form, his detention by ICE, being taken from his home as well as other advocates, Ms. Öztürk in Boston, Massachusetts, ripped off of the street. Being taken is wrong. It is illegal. It is a violation of his First Amendment rights. It is an affront to every American. And we will not allow, and we will continue to resist, the politicization and the continued political persecution that ICE is engaged in.

BAHER AZMY: I’m Baher Azmy, A-Z-M-Y, Center for Constitutional Rights. I’m one of his attorneys. This is an incredibly significant and important victory, although one that came far too late. And as much as we’re celebrating, I think we can’t fully let go of the outrage that Mahmoud had to fight for so long and so hard against this outrageous and unconstitutional government conduct by the administration, namely to persecute him simply for advocacy for Palestine and dissenting from United States foreign policy. So, I think Mahmoud and Palestinian advocates are still the tip of the authoritarian spear with this administration. But collectively, I think people want to keep up the resistance and keep up the fight for justice in Palestine.

RAMZI KASSEM: Ramzi Kassem, CLEAR Project, CUNY School of Law. We’re attorneys for Mr. Khalil.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you first respond to Mahmoud’s being freed? Tell us what took so long. What was the decision that the judge made? What was it based on after these months?

RAMZI KASSEM: The district judge, quite appropriately, yesterday, took a hard and studied look at all of the factors that govern release and found that there was absolutely no basis, none. He was unequivocal. Mahmoud is not a danger of any sort. He’s not a flight risk of any kind. And there’s absolutely no justification for his detention. The judge did this meticulously, methodically in a two-hour hearing that should withstand any sort of appellate scrutiny. The fundamental reality remains that Mahmoud Khalil was detained by this administration in an attempt to make an example out of him, in an attempt to stifle speech that frankly should be celebrated and commended, speech in defense of the human rights of Palestinians, their dignity, their right to life, speech in opposition to an ongoing genocide. And for that, the administration tried that make an example out of him and tried to establish a template that it would then apply to any other set of issues that it happens to disagree with. That, as we’ve seen today, is failing. It is backfiring. Mahmoud is out, of course, and he is, as you heard, uncowed, unbowed, he’s going to resume his activism. But he’s not alone, more importantly. Hundreds of thousands of others have expressed not just their solidarity with him, but their solidarity with the Palestinian people. And this is not a movement that the Trump administration is going to be able to deport its way out of. It’s very much an American movement.

AMY GOODMAN: Does Mahmoud face deportation today? Explain the difference between the two courts.

RAMZI KASSEM: Well, the simplest way to think about it is that the immigration case is the Trump administration’s case. It’s the case that they want because it’s before an immigration judge who isn’t really a judge at all. An immigration judge is a DOJ employee, Department of Justice employee, who serves at the pleasure of the president and can be fired by the president at any time. The case in federal court in New Jersey, on the other hand, now, that’s Mahmoud’s case. That’s the case that he brought to vindicate his own constitutional rights in front of an independent judge who does not serve at the pleasure of the president, who has lifetime tenure, and who, as was demonstrated yesterday, can issue rulings that are critical of the president. The contrast was extremely clear yesterday. You had a federal judge agreeing with Mahmoud and vindicating his constitutional rights against the Trump administration. And at the same time, you had an immigration judge, who’s an employee of the Trump administration, agreeing with the Trump administration. There could be no clearer illustration of the difference between the administrative immigration proceedings and Mahmoud’s constitutional case in federal court.

AMY GOODMAN: So, does he face deportation?

RAMZI KASSEM: He is in ongoing removal proceedings. We will continue to fight that fight, and that’s why the fight is not over. But the latest round of this fight was resoundingly run by Mahmoud Khalil.

AMY GOODMAN: Ramzi, you were there when Mahmoud was freed. Can you describe what that was like? And also, making your way from Jena, Louisiana, you flew from Dallas to Newark.

RAMZI KASSEM: Amy, I was there with Mahmoud. We were listening to the hearing in court together in Jena in a room over a phone. And when the ruling came down…

AMY GOODMAN: From the bench at that moment?

RAMZI KASSEM: Yeah. When the ruling came down over that phone, he and I jumped up, we hugged each other, we screamed, we shouted. And then, we started planning. And we drove through the night to catch the first flight out. We haven’t slept. But we’re happy, and I can’t imagine his happiness, embracing his wife and child, and their happiness. And I’m just ecstatic that they’re together, that they get this time to be together. They should’ve never been separated, of course. But now, they are together, and he’s in a much better position, not just to fight these legal cases that we’ve been talking about, but also to resume his all-important political work as an outspoken advocate for the most basic human rights for the Palestinian people.

AMY GOODMAN: We are standing at Newark Airport, where Mahmoud Khalil has just arrived, reuniting with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and his almost two-month-old son, Deen, whose birth he missed as he was jailed for more than 100 days in Jena, Louisiana. And as we stand here at Newark Airport where – in terminal A, where he came out, and welcomed his supporters, and talked to the press, we’re standing in front of a mural by the Ecuadorian muralist, Layqa Nuna Yawar. It is a mural that celebrates immigrants in the United States. I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now!.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Saturday. On Sunday, Mahmoud Khalil addressed over a thousand supporters as well as the press outside the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine here in Manhattan, blocks from the campus of Columbia University.

MAHMOUD KHALIL: I would like to salute the courage of all the students at Columbia and across the nation. These students who continue to protest. I want to honor especially my friends at Columbia University, especially those who are currently battling expulsion and suspension for their consciousness stand. As many of you know, the board of trustees at Columbia, the shameful board of trustees at Columbia, is currently attempting to expel 15 more students and to suspend tens of others, basically stealing their future, their degrees, their labor, merely because these students are not afraid. These students are not afraid to stand for Palestine. Columbia University will do everything and anything it can to ensure that the words free Palestine are not uttered anywhere near it. But while we are here, free, free Palestine!

CROWD: Free, free Palestine!

MAHMOUD KHALIL: Free, free Palestine!

CROWD: Free, free Palestine!

MAHMOUD KHALIL: Viva, viva Palestina!

CROWD: Viva, viva Palestina!

MAHMOUD KHALIL: Viva, viva Palestina!

CROWD: Viva, viva Palestina!

MAHMOUD KHALIL: I hope that Columbia University heard your chants. In fact, even today, Columbia University refused to allow this press conference and rally to be held at the gates just so that we cannot remind them that they fund the killing in Gaza. Well, who is Mahmoud Khalil? That’s why the administration has tried its best to portray me as someone who’s violent. Mahmoud Khalil is a human rights defender. Mahmoud Khalil is a freedom fighter. Mahmoud Khalil is a refugee. Mahmoud Khalil is a father and husband. And above all, Mahmoud Khalil is Palestinian. Mahmoud Khalil is a Palestinian who refused to remain silent while watching a genocide in Palestine, a genocide that’s, of course, committed by the genocidal state of Israel that’s funded by the U.S. government, that’s invested by Columbia University.

AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud Khalil addressing over 1,000 supporters as well as the press outside the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. He then led a march as the marchers held the banner “Welcome home, Mahmoud.” He wore a Palestinian flag as a cape, and they marched from 110th Street, where the Cathedral is, to Columbia University at 116th Street. Mahmoud Khalil still faces deportation but now can deal with these proceedings as a free man with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and his newborn son, Deen Khalil. That does it for our show. Special thanks to Laura Bustillos. To see our job openings, go to democracynow.org.