New York, New York - New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani broke his fast with Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion one year after the Palestinian rights activist's detention by ICE.

"For Mahmoud Khalil, this past year has been marked by profound hardship – and by profound courage," Mamdani posted on X on Monday, along with an image of the two sharing a meal together with their families during the holy month of Ramadan.

Khalil was arrested in New York City in March 2025 by plainclothes immigration officials who did not have a warrant. The 31-year-old Columbia University graduate was transferred to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, where he spent more than 100 days behind bars and missed the birth of his first child.

A prominent member of Columbia's Palestine liberation movement, Khalil was targeted by the Trump administration for deportation due to his activism.

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Khalil was freed from ICE detention in June after a US judge in New Jersey ordered his release on bail. He continues to fight his cases in federal and immigration court.

"And yet, even in the face of that cruelty, there has also been beauty," Mamdani said. "New Yorkers raising their voices in solidarity. A city refusing to look away. Mahmoud won his freedom, and a father was finally reunited with his child."

"Last night, as we marked the one year anniversary of his detention, Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud, [his wife] Noor, and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together," the mayor continued.

"Mahmoud is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York City."

On Monday, Khalil addressed demonstrators gathered outside the Columbia gates demanding the university adopt stronger protections for international students.

According to the Columbia Spectator, Khalil in his remarks talked about Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman who has been locked up in the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, since March 2025.

In a letter to Kordia published in The Guardian on Monday, Khalil wrote, "Though we have never met in person, I have carried you with me every single day since Noor called me while I was detained in Jena, Louisiana, to tell me that you had been taken. I remember thinking: not again, not another one of us. From that moment, a piece of my heart has been tied to your struggle."

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"I want to tell you what I could not tell myself when I was where you are: this will end," Khalil said. "Not because the system will suddenly discover its conscience. Not because those who put you there will wake up one morning and realize the cruelty of what they have done."

"It will end because people will force it to end."

Though not a Columbia student, Kordia was detained after being arrested in a 2024 protest near the university against Israel's US-backed atrocities in Gaza. The charges were later dropped.

Kordia was taken into ICE custody after she voluntarily attended what she thought was a routine immigration meeting at the agency's headquarters in Newark. The 33-year-old was in the process of obtaining US permanent residency at the time.

Since then, a federal immigration judge has twice approved Kordia's release on bond, while the Trump administration has appealed the ruling.

During a meeting with Donald Trump at the White House late last month, Mamdani successfully advocated the release of Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE in her university residential building. The mayor reportedly asked for Kordia's case to be dropped as well, along with those of Khalil, Yunseo Chung, and Mohsen Mahdawi.

Mamdani has previously called for Kordia's release, describing her ongoing detention as both "cruel" and "unnecessary."