Mahmoud Khalil is a man living under a heavy burden. The threat of deportation from the United States prevents him from making plans. Next month, he could be at home in New York with his wife and child or anywhere else in the world. “I have the full weight of the Donald Trump administration against me, trying to deport me by any means,” he says.
His case has grown into a symbol not only of the Palestinian cause but also of the fight for free speech in the United States. “They came for me, and they will go after anyone who dissents,” he says emphatically in an interview with EL PAÍS.
It is one of the ironies in the story of this 31-year-old: the persecution of a previously anonymous Palestinian student has ended up turning him into a celebrity. Khalil, one of the most visible faces of the protests against the Israeli massacre in Gaza that rocked U.S. universities in the spring of 2024, now rubs shoulders with politicians such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and is in demand at numerous events.
After serving as a negotiator for pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University, he was detained without charges by federal authorities in an immigration detention center. He spent 104 days there. As if that were not enough, Khalil — who holds permanent resident status and is married to a U.S. citizen — is now subject to a deportation order issued by an immigration court under the Department of Justice. He does not know when or how it will be carried out.
He receives visitors on the rooftop of a building in Brooklyn. During an hour-long interview, he insists that what happened to him is merely an example of the United States’ authoritarian drift. And in this struggle, he says, Palestinians are simply the canary in the coal mine: a warning that worse is yet to come.
“My case was only the start of everything. After that came mass deportations, attacks on journalists, attacks on universities… The White House made it clear by saying my detention would set a precedent. Now everything is much clearer.”
1. Deportation
In a case riddled with irregularities like his, the deportation process is no exception. The government is seeking to fast-track his removal before a hearing that the Supreme Court must hold. “It’s an insane turnaround, particularly for such a high-profile case on a novel legal issue,” Homero López, a former member of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the body responsible for the decision, told The New York Times.
The Department of Justice did not respond to this newspaper’s questions about the case. But members of the Trump administration have in recent months offered various arguments to justify Khalil’s deportation: from alleged antisemitism to errors in the information he provided when applying for a visa in 2024. He denies both accusations. He admits antisemitism is a real problem and that, sadly, it is rising in the United States and around the world. “But it’s rising because of the actions of Israel, a country that is using Judaism as a shield against any criticism. And because this administration is siding with far-right politicians, at home and abroad,” he says.
Khalil does not want to think about what he will do if he is deported. For now, he is focused on fighting to win the case. “I want to do it, first, to stay with my family. But also to show that we will not be intimidated. And that it is illegal to attack freedom of expression,” says Khalil, who will publish his memoirs, No Land To Stand On, in September.
Khalil’s name began to circulate when the wave of outrage against the Israeli government reached Columbia University. There the young Palestinian — who was born in Syria but holds Algerian citizenship — was studying at the School of International and Public Affairs. “The repression was tremendous. Hundreds of students were expelled or suspended. The FBI raided homes. Columbia cooperated with the government to suppress freedom. I don’t think, in its recent history, the United States has inflicted such a degree of violence upon its own people,” he says.
But in his case, the worst was yet to come.
2. ICE detention
On March 8, 2025, federal agents burst into his university residence without a judicial warrant. His wife was eight months pregnant. After being moved through several facilities, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took him on March 10 to a detention center in Louisiana, more than 2,000 miles from his home.
There he received what he describes as degrading treatment, including inedible food and freezing conditions. But what affected him most was something else: “I remember the injustice around me. I saw broken men, crying when they saw on television that they were being called criminals and rapists. People whose only crime had been seeking a better future for their families.”
The worst thing, he says, was missing the birth of his son. “I will never forgive those who stripped me of such a divine moment, a moment every human being on this earth wants to share with their significant other.” On June 20, he was released by a judge of a federal court in New Jersey who found no basis for his detention.
— During your detention, you wrote a letter that said: “The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent […] At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.” One year later, what do you think?
— You tell me (laughs). It was a warning of how Palestine would be used as a Trojan horse to come after others. The laws on material support for terrorism in this country were designed around Palestinians, but later expanded to other groups.
The situation raises a question: why would someone who has endured this ordeal want to keep living in the United States? “Above all, to prove that this administration is wrong,” Khalil replies. “If I leave, what message would that send to the millions of people who support Palestine? That I did not fight. The second reason, of course, is that my wife and my son are American. Also, I love New York and I believe in that premise that the United States is the land of the free.”
When asked if he still believes that, he replies: “That’s why I keep fighting.”
3. What now?
The interview, held on Friday, June 26, took place at a pivotal moment for U.S. politics. Only days had passed since the New York Democratic primaries in which candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored sweeping victories. What they all share is unequivocal support for the Palestinian cause and fierce criticism of the Israeli government.
Far from being an isolated development, the results reflect a seismic shift in U.S. public opinion: for the first time, polls show greater sympathy for the Palestinian cause than for Israel.
Khalil attributes this change, among other factors, to the student protests in which he took part. “Our movement has succeeded. Above all because it has drastically shifted public opinion in this country, not only among young people but across the population. The hypocrisy of the establishment, where everything stops at the word ‘Palestine,’ has been exposed. Palestine was, in a way, what exposed this horrendous policy.”
Speaking about his relationship with Mamdani, Khalil notes that the mayor raised his case with Trump during a visit to the White House. “A big reason for Kamala Harris’s defeat was due to the Biden administration’s policies on Gaza. And this will be a big question for any presidential candidate in 2028,” he says.
Trump campaigned in 2024 as a defender of free speech against what he described as a “woke” dictatorship. But cases like Khalil’s cast doubt on that narrative. Khalil says that is precisely why his experience has resonated with so many Americans. But, he argues, the issue extends beyond his own case. “If Trump can do this, any other president, Republican or Democrat, could do the same,” he says. “These tools will be available to any president, to any administration, and they can use them against anyone who they dislike.”
To understand Khalil, it helps to know where he comes from. Born in Syria in a refugee camp for Palestinians, he later took part in protests against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The experience of dispossession and a deep sense of injustice have shaped his life.
“I never thought the world was a fair place. I grew up with the sense that everyone had turned their backs on us. My grandparents always hoped to return to Palestine. Seeing them die in Syria after spending the second half of their lives in a refugee camp with tents and mud houses deepened my sense of injustice.”
Later, in the United States, seeing what he views as a continuation of the persecution his family had experienced only reinforced that feeling. “Palestinians are not only victims of violence in our land. It is something that follows you wherever you are when you defend the rights of our people.”
— Why do you think you were chosen as a target?
— It was pure coincidence. They were looking for someone to make an example of. Someone who did not have the protections other protesters had. They thought that because I was Palestinian, I would not fight. That person was me.
— When you began taking part in the protests in 2024, did you fear something like this could happen in a country like the United States?
— (Smiles). Oh, no, no. I absolutely miscalculated. Because I wasn’t doing anything wrong. And I also thought my role as a negotiator would carry much less risk than actually organizing big protests. I never wanted to be the face of the movement for Palestine.
— Looking back, would you get involved in this again?
— Absolutely. I would do exactly the same thing again. I have zero regrets.
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