New York, New York - Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil shared a powerful message on Sunday as he joined a crowd of supporters in New York City after his release from ICE detention.

"I would like to salute the courage of all students at Columbia and across the nation, these students who continue to protest," Khalil said on the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, just a short distance away from Columbia University.

Khalil added that he wanted to honor especially those students at Columbia who are fighting expulsion and suspension for their pro-Palestinian activism.

"Columbia University will do everything and anything it can to ensure that the words 'Free Palestine' are not uttered anywhere near it," the recent graduate student said.

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Khalil received no support from his university after his March 8 warrantless arrest in New York City and transfer to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena. A prominent member of Columbia's Palestine liberation movement, he was targeted by the Trump administration for deportation due to his activism.

A federal judge in New Jersey ordered Khalil's release on bail last week, ruling he "is not a danger to the community. Period, full stop."

The 30-year-old late last month filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding records of the Trump administration's communications with anti-Palestine doxxing groups that targeted him ahead of his arrest.

"How did we become targets of Israel-aligned groups? Because Columbia University failed to protect its students," Khalil said. "Columbia University, in fact, emboldened these individuals to continue to harass and harm students."

Khalil spent over 100 days in detention but said the first 30 hours were the hardest.

"It felt like I was literally being kidnapped, where you have plainclothes agents literally snatching you from your apartment building without introducing themselves, without introducing an arrest warrant," the green card holder told supporters and the press on Sunday.

Khalil said he was concerned about his then-pregnant wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, who has since given birth to their first child, a baby boy named Deen. Cut off from all communication, he had no way of contacting his family or knowing what would happen next.

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After his transfer to Jena, Khalil was locked up in a dorm with over 70 other men, where he said there was no privacy and the lights were always on. He said he spent his days "listening to one tragic story after another."

"The center is crowded with hundreds of people who are told that their existence is illegal, and not one of us knows when we can go free. At those moments, it was remembering a specific chant that gave me strength: 'I believe that we will win,'" Khalil recalled as the crowd erupted into renditions of the chant.

"In Jena, Louisiana, I found myself literally scratching this into my bunk bed and looking at it as I fell asleep and as I woke up. I find myself repeating it even now knowing that I have won in a small way by being free today."

But Khalil went on to say that his release was just one win in a larger struggle toward justice and freedom.

"I want everyone to understand that my being here today is sweet, but it's not a victory – not when Palestinians are still being killed with US bombs, and not when supporting their righteous struggle is so heavily criminalized," he reminded the crowd.

The Trump administration has sought to deport noncitizen students like Khalil who take a stand for Palestinian human rights, claiming that by doing so, they are threatening US foreign policy interests.

Khalil rejected the government's attempt to characterize him as threatening and "violent."

"Mahmoud Khalil is a human rights defender. Mahmoud Khalil is a freedom fighter. Mahmoud Khalil is a refugee. Mahmoud Khalil is a father and husband. And above all, Mahmoud Khalil is Palestinian," he said to overwhelming cheers.

"Mahmoud Khalil is a Palestinian who refused to remain silent while watching a genocide in Palestine. A genocide that's, of course, committed by the genocidal state of Israel, that's funded by the US government, that's invested by Columbia University."

Khalil left his supporters with a message of hope, that the movement for Palestinian human rights is winning – even in face of extreme repression.

"The wave of repression that the Trump administration initiated with my detention was intended to silence the movement for Palestinian liberation. It was intended to scare people into silence. It was intended to distract us from the fact that the US government is a killing machine, in Palestine and across the world," Khalil said.

"But they completely failed," he continued. "Millions of people spoke up even louder that it is our responsibility to end this genocide, no matter the personal cost. And that's exactly what I will continue trying to do so long as I am able, so long as I am breathing."