Columbia student Khalil pins detention, deportation threat on US ‘racism’ against Palestinians

Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, threatened with deportation over what US federal authorities say is support for the Hamas terror group, says his detention is indicative of “anti-Palestinian racism” demonstrated by both the Trump and Biden administrations.

The letter dictated from a Louisiana immigration lockup and released by his attorney, is the first public comment from Khalil, whose arrest has sparked high profile protests.

“My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the U.S. has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention,” he says in the letter.

“For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted.”

He compares his treatment to Israel’s use of administrative detention, which allows it to hold terror suspects for extended periods without charge.

“For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace,” he writes.

He also references a wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza Tuesday that ended a two-month ceasefire.

“With January’s ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs,” he says. “It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom.”