When Mahmoud Khalil was arrested in his New York apartment and transported to a Louisiana detention center, he didn’t realize the magnitude of the situation. It wasn’t until he heard a law enforcement officer tell their superior that the White House was requesting an update when Khalil said “holy shit.”
The Palestinian Columbia University student was arrested in March 2025 after he helped organize and lead pro-Palestinian protests and campus encampments against Israel’s war on Gaza. As a result, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that Khalil could cause “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” which allowed law enforcement to proceed with Khalil’s arrest and deportation. He was taken from his then-eight-month-pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, spent over 100 days in ICE custody, and was forced to miss his graduation ceremony at CU and the birth of his son, Dean.
All because Khalil was “protesting the use of my tuition dollars, my tax dollars, and funding endless wars against my people,” he said.
Though a federal judge ordered his release last June, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the legal battle must be conducted in immigration court rather than federal court in a 2-1 vote in January. Khalil has since appealed the decision with the Board of Immigration Appeals, now awaiting its decision. He also filed a $20 million claim against the Trump administration for false imprisonment last July.
One of Khalil’s 20 attorneys, Baher Azmy, argues that the hearing should be conducted in federal court due to Trump’s influence on immigration enforcement. “It’s a First Amendment-based detention that’s happening here, and we needed an independent court that cares about the Constitution and not just the president’s policy prerogatives to weigh in on that,” he said.
“As an immigrant in this country, I’ve never imagined the injustice in the immigration system as a whole, whether the legal part of it about how unfair or how one-sided it is – like sham courts and sham proceedings in general,” Khalil said.
He described his time in Louisiana as “dehumanizing,” having to share a single room with dozens of other people where the lights never went out. “It was like so normal to see just like people crying because they don’t know when this is gonna end,” he said. He also mentioned that he had to translate officer’s orders to other Spanish-speaking detainees, stating that the individuals did not understand the documents that they were signing. “A week later, they were deported without being afforded any opportunity to present their case to any judge whatsoever,” Khalil said.
In spite of his circumstances, Khalil refers to himself as a “privileged Palestinian,” considering what the people of his native country have endured.
And despite pushback from critics who say that South by Southwest granted pro-Hamas rhetoric by hosting Khalil, the organizers of the event have defended their decision to hold the panel, stating that hosting the Palestinian does not necessarily mean that the festival aligns with his views.
Khalil took time to address these concerns during the panel, stating that he “condemn[s] all violence against civilians, no matter who the perpetrators are, whether Hamas, Israel, anyone else.” He said that right-wing framings of his actions to be seen as antisemitic are intentional attacks to distract the public and silence individuals.
“These are all deliberate attempts to silence people because it’s easier for them to silence me than to actually engage in the conversation about what’s happening,” he said.
“It’s just the reflexive assumption that an Arab Palestinian who invokes international human rights and principles of justice, and calls for the respect for human life and dignity, rooted in deep principles of law and justice, reflexively called Hamas is like just a racist dog whistle,” said Azmy.
As Khalil awaits the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision, he understands the significant role he plays in terms of immigration enforcement, though he remains troubled that his life is currently in a state of uncertainty.
“I just like feel so sad that we’re forced to live this life now while we’re supposed to just be a small family, living our life, go with Dean and Noor to the park,” he said. “But now, it’s the total like opposite, just living in limbo.”
Nevertheless, both Khalil and Azmy said that communities must continue rallying together to combat the injustice taking place in the country. “As the lawyer on the panel, I want to reassure you, the courts will not save us,” Azmy said. “You can’t rely on lawyers and courts, especially not with this Supreme Court. What Minnesota taught us is that the only answer is to organize, organize, organize.”
Outside of the panel at the JW Marriott on Sunday, stood a man holding a sign that read “I’m Jewish and I don’t support Israel. Please ask me why.”
The individual, Michael Katz, said that he is happy SXSW stood by its decision to host Khalil. “I think people need to understand that this movement is about human rights, and most Americans would agree that you can’t stop people from returning and voting because they’re a different religion,” he said. “That’s what this whole thing is about.”
