Columbia's Mahmoud Khalil felt he was being kidnapped as detention
unfolded, lawyers say
[March 14, 2025]
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — Handcuffed and shackled, Mahmoud Khalil was rushed from
New York to Louisiana last weekend in a manner that left the outspoken
Columbia University graduate student feeling like he was being
kidnapped, his lawyers wrote in an updated lawsuit seeking his immediate
release.
The lawyers described in detail what happened to the Palestinian
activist as he was flown to Louisiana by agents he said never identified
themselves. Once there, he was left to sleep in a bunker with no pillow
or blanket as top U.S. officials cheered the effort to deport a man his
lawyers say sometimes became the “public face” of student protests on
Columbia’s campus against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
The filing late Thursday in Manhattan federal court was the result of a
federal judge’s Wednesday order that they finally be allowed to speak
with Khalil.
The lawyers said his treatment by federal authorities from Saturday,
when he was first arrested, to Monday reminded Khalil of when he left
Syria shortly after the forced disappearance of his friends there during
a period of arbitrary detention in 2013.
“Throughout this process, Mr. Khalil felt as though he was being
kidnapped,” the lawyers wrote of his treatment.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as
the first “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport students
he said engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
In court papers, lawyers for the Justice Department said Kahlil was
detained under a law allowing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to remove
someone from the country if he has reasonable grounds to believe their
presence or activities would have potentially serious adverse foreign
policy consequences.
Trump and Rubio were added as defendants in the civil lawsuit seeking to
free Khalil.
The government attorneys asked a judge to toss out the lawsuit or
transfer it to New Jersey or Louisiana, saying jurisdiction belongs in
the locations where Khalil has been held since his detention.
According to the lawsuit, Khalil repeatedly asked to speak to a lawyer
after the U.S. permanent resident with no criminal history was snatched
by federal agents as he and his wife were returning to Columbia's
residential housing, where they lived, after dinner at a friend's home.
Confronted by agents for the Department of Homeland Security, Khalil
briefly telephoned his lawyer before he was taken to FBI headquarters in
lower Manhattan, the lawsuit said.
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Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia
University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest
encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)
It was there that Khalil saw an agent approach another agent and
say, “the White House is requesting an update,” the lawyers wrote.
At some point early Sunday, Khalil was taken, handcuffed and
shackled, to the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New
Jersey, a privately-run facility where he spent the night in a cold
waiting room for processing, his request for a blanket denied, the
lawsuit said.
When he reached the front of the line for processing, he was told
his processing would not occur after all because he was being
transported by immigration authorities, it said.
Put in a van, Khalil noticed that one of the agents received a text
message instructing that Khalil was not to use his phone, the
lawsuit said.
At 2:45 p.m. Sunday, he was put on an American Airlines flight from
Kennedy International Airport to Dallas, where he was put on a
second flight to Alexandria, Louisiana. He arrived at 1 a.m. Monday
and a police car took him to the Louisiana Detention Facility in
Jena, Louisiana, it said.
At the facility, he now worries about his pregnant wife and is “also
very concerned about missing the birth of his first child,” the
lawsuit said.
In April, Khalil was to begin a job and receive health benefits that
the couple was counting on to cover costs related to the birth and
care of the child, it added.
“It is very important to Mr. Khalil to be able to continue his
protected political speech, advocating and protesting for the rights
of Palestinians — both domestically and abroad,” the lawsuit said,
noting that Khalil was planning to speak on a panel at the upcoming
premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark, of a documentary in which he is
featured.
At a hearing Wednesday, Khalil's attorneys said they had not been
allowed any attorney-client-protected communications with Khalil
since his arrest and had been told they could speak to him in 10
days. Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that at least one conversation
be permitted on Wednesday and Thursday.
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