ICE won't let Mahmoud Khalil hold newborn son for first time amid ongoing detention
Jena, Louisiana - US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday denied detained Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil's request to hold his newborn son for the first time.
"I am furious at the cruelty and inhumanity of this system that dares to call itself just," Khalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said in a press release. "After flying over a thousand miles to Louisiana with our newborn son, his very first flight, all so his father could finally hold him in his arms, ICE has denied us even this most basic human right."
Khalil missed the birth of his son, Deen, as he remains locked up in the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center since his March 8 arrest in New York City.
The recent Columbia University graduate student was a prominent member of the Palestinian liberation movement on campus. He was targeted by the Trump administration for arrest and deportation for his activism.
Citing a no-contact visitation policy, ICE and the private prison contractor GEO Group this week refused to allow Khalil a visit with Abdalla and Deen in which the new father would have been able to hold his son in his arms for the first time. Instead, the officials have insisted the visit could only proceed with glass separation.
"This is not just heartless," Abdalla said. "It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse. And I cannot ignore the echoes of this pain in the stories of Palestinian families, torn apart by Israeli military prisons and bombs, denied dignity, denied life."
"Our struggle is not isolated. This system is unjust, and we will fight until Mahmoud is home."
Mahmoud Khalil's legal team reacts to ICE decision
Legal representatives for Khalil argued that contact visits are regularly permitted at ICE facilities in other states, including at the Elizabeth Detention Facility in New Jersey where he has requested to be transferred.
Khalil has a case pending before a federal court in New Jersey challenging the constitutionality of his arrest.
Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said: "The government chose to arrest and detain Mahmoud thousands of miles away in the Louisiana detention gulags to punish him for his support for Palestinian human rights, and is doubling down on their retaliatory punishment by denying him the most elementary human contact with his wife and child."
"ICE leadership and elected officials must act to remedy this grotesque and unnecessary inhumanity for Mahmoud – and for all others," Azmy added.
Khalil on Mother's Day penned a powerful letter to Deen, expressing his love for his child and vowing to continue the fight for Palestinian freedom.
Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said, "Mahmoud Khalil deserves to hold his son. Noor Abdalla deserves to see her husband meet their child. And we, as a country, deserve better than policies rooted in cruelty."
Despite the denial of the request, Abdalla is set to attend her husband's immigration hearing in Louisiana in person this Thursday.
Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS