Mahmoud Khalil responds to charges against him for the first time in new legal filings, and describes the ‘irreparable harm’ of his detention

By Chelsea Bailey, CNN

(CNN) — Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate at the center of a high-profile deportation fight with the US government over his pro-Palestinian views, personally responded to the government’s claims that he’s a threat to foreign policy for the first time in a sworn legal declaration unsealed Thursday.

The declaration from Khalil comes after a New Jersey federal judge ruled last month that the government’s use of an obscure immigration law to detain and deport him is “likely unconstitutional.”

Khalil was among the first in a series of high-profile arrests of pro-Palestinian students as the Trump administration moved to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.

Khalil’s attorneys filed a massive tranche of legal declarations late Wednesday – including a sworn statement from Khalil himself – that paints a vivid picture of his mental anguish inside a Louisiana detention facility. The filings also include declarations from Columbia University students and professors, legal experts, and a former ICE legal advisor on the chilling effects and lasting impacts of Khalil’s arrest and detention.

“As someone who fled prosecution in Syria for my political beliefs, for who I am, I never imagined myself to be in immigration detention, here in the United States,” Khalil wrote in his multi-page declaration.

“Why should protesting this Israel government’s indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians result in the erosion of my constitutional rights?”

While a graduate student at Columbia, Khalil, a Palestinian refugee, acted as a liaison between student protesters and school administrators during the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus in 2024.

The Trump administration has argued that Khalil’s actions pose a threat to its foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism and in April, the administration outlined its evidence against him in a two-page memo written by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

But Khail’s attorneys have argued the memo does not describe criminal activity and that the Trump administration is instead targeting him for his political speech in support of Palestinian rights, in violation of the First Amendment.

“The only ground the government has ever relied on in this case to justify Mahmoud’s detention is the foreign policy ground,” Alina Das, one of Khalil’s attorneys, said during a news conference Thursday.

“We’re hopeful (the judge) will order his release based on all of the evidence that we’ve submitted,” Das said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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