Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are not allowing detained pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil to meet with his wife and newborn son, his attorneys told Mehdi Hasan's Zateo News.
Khalil missed his son's birth in April after being arrested by the Trump administration in March.
Reporter Prem Thakker posted to social media, "Mahmoud Khalil's legal team says ICE & private prison contractor GEO Group are refusing to let him have a contact visit with his wife & newborn baby. They traveled over 1500 miles—hoping Mahmoud could see and hold them for the first time since his arrest over 10 weeks ago."
The post included a screenshot of a press release from Khalil's attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, where he's being held at an ICE detention center.
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"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," said legal director Nora Ahmed.
The release continued, "ICE's refusal comes after multiple requests from Mr. Khalil's legal team that points to federal policies that explicitly encouraging contact visits between detained parents and their children."
The American Civil Liberties Union said the denial "underscores the government's ongoing retaliation...in response to his support of Palestinian rights."
Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in the release that ICE leaders and elected officials "must act to remedy this grotesque and unnecessary inhumanity for Mahmoud — and for all others."
Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia and "one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza."
The Trump administration has accused pro-Palestinian demonstrators of promoting anti-Semitism and terrorism, which Khalil and other protesters have denied.
Khalil's immigration hearing is set for Thursday.