Mahmoud Khalil's Lawyers File Request For Bail
In a early Saturday morning filing, Khalil's lawyers said that he poses no flight risk.
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil asked Judge Jesse Furman to release their client on bail in a legal filing early Saturday morning.
Khalil doesn’t represent a flight risk, his lawyers said, in part because his pregnant wife is set to give birth soon. “To the contrary, Mr. Khalil has deep family and community ties and numerous people who attest to his character and commitment to human rights,” Khalil’s lawyers wrote. “This Court should grant Mr. Khalil immediate release.”
Khalil, who is a legal permanent resident of the United States and has not been charged with a crime, is currently being held at an immigration detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.
Khalil’s lawyers say he is “unable to stomach food and continuing to navigate the side effects of a pervasive stomach ulcer.” His lawyers said that if he is released, Khalil will begin a new job in New York City.
Read the entire motion for release here:
Khalil’s wife, who is a US citizen and is eight months pregnant, wrote a letter to the court in support of her husband.
“I met Mahmoud in the summer of 2016, when I was volunteering with a nongovernmental organization that runs educational programs for Syrian refugee communities in Lebanon,” Noor Ramez Abdalla wrote in the filing. “Mahmoud was employed with that organization at the time and managed the volunteer program. We fell in love.”
Khalil’s wife said that a harassment campaign against Khalil for his involvement in leading student protestors at Columbia University against the war in Gaza had become so intense that he asked her last week if she knew what to do if immigration agents were to arrive at their home.
When immigration agents did end up arresting Khalil on Saturday, March 7th, they refused to identify themselves, saying only that he was being taken to 26 Federal Plaza, the location of the New York ICE field office.
“I ultimately watched my husband driven off by the agents, having no idea why he was being arrested or how I could reach him,” Abdalla wrote.
Abdalla said she is expecting to give birth to a boy on April 28, and that the prospect of Khalil missing his birth is devastating.
“I have frequently felt anxious about the daily experience of pregnancy, ensuring my baby is in good health, and the prospect of bringing life into this world,” Abdalla wrote. “Mahmoud offers me every bit of reprieve I could hope for. He massages my feet and back every day, he makes sure that I eat and sleep well, and he offers me so much emotional support.”
Read the full declaration of Noor Ramez Abdalla here:
The U.S. government has an opportunity to respond to Khalil’s request for bail, which will likely happen in the coming days.
Khalil’s lawyers reiterated that their client is being targeted by Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for his legally protected speech opposing the war in Gaza.
”President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made abundantly clear the basis of their ire against Mr. Khalil: his speech and expression related to the devastating human toll from Israel's military campaign in Gaza over the past year and a half as a member of the student body of Columbia University,” Khalil’s lawyers wrote.