Pro-Palestinian protest leader defiant despite US deportation threat
NEWARK, United States: Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent leaders of US pro-Palestinian campus protests, pledged Saturday to keep campaigning after he was released from a federal detention center.
'Even if they would kill me, I would still speak for Palestine,' Khalil said as he was greeted by cheering supporters at Newark airport, just outside New York City.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, had been in custody since March facing potential deportation.
He was freed from a federal immigration detention center in Louisiana on Friday, hours after a judge ordered his release on bail.
The Columbia University graduate was a figurehead of student protests against US ally Israel's war in Gaza, and the Trump administration labeled him a national security threat.
'Just the fact I am here sends a message — the fact that all these attempts to suppress pro-Palestine voices have failed now,' said Khalil, who is still fighting his potential expulsion from the United States.
He spoke alongside his wife Noor Abdalla, who gave birth to the couple's first child while Khalil was in detention, as well as Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
'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,' Ocasio-Cortez said.
'This is not over, and we will have to continue to support this case,' she added.
Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, is not allowed to leave the United States except for 'self-deportation' under the terms of his release.
He also faces restrictions on where he can travel within the country.
President Donald Trump's government has justified pushing for Khalil's deportation by saying his continued presence in the United States could carry 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.'
Beyond his legal case, Khalil's team fears he could face threats out of detention.
'We are very mindful about his security, and the irony is that he is the one being persecuted,' Baher Azmy, one of his lawyers, told AFP.
'But he is committed to peace and because he is rejecting US government policy he is under threat,' Azmy added, without elaborating on any security measures in place for Khalil and his family.
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