Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧Jun 13, 2025

#ICE Says It Has No Immediate Plans to Release #MahmoudKhalil

A federal judge ruled this week that the government cannot hold the #ColumbiaUniversity graduate under the rarely invoked law it used to detain him.

from #NewYorkTimes #NYT
By Jonah E. Bromwich
June 13, 2025, 11:04 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/nyregion/mahmoud-khalil-trump-detention.html

https://archive.ph/o4Lvd

#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#DefendAcademicFreedom
#repression
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#DueProcessForAll
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

Blocked by Judge, U.S. Shifts Rationale for Detaining Mahmoud Khalil

A federal judge ruled this week that the government could not continue to hold the Columbia University graduate under the rarely invoked law it originally used to detain him.

The New York Times
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 28, 2025

Judge says US effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil on foreign policy grounds is likely unconstitutional

from #AssociatedPress #AP #APNews
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Updated 6:58 PM EDT, May 28, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge said the #Trump administration’s effort to deport #MahmoudKhalil because of his pro-#Palestinian activism at #ColumbiaUniversity likely violates the #Constitution.

In a lengthy order issued Wednesday, Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote the government’s primary justification for removing Khalil — that his beliefs may pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy — could open the door to vague and arbitrary enforcement.

https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-doj-dhs-columbia-university-f802564cf42c31b11fec99730d53ee5b?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#ReturnKilmarAlbertoGarcia
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics
#news #press @palestine

Judge says US effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil on foreign policy grounds is likely unconstitutional

A federal judge said the Trump administration’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil because of his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University was likely unconstitutional. Judge Michael Farbiarz said Wednesday that Khalil's lawyers had not properly responded to another charge brought by the government: that Khalil had failed to disclose his involvement in activism and refugee resettlement on his permanent residency application. The judge plans to issue next steps in the coming days. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment. He is first arrest under President Donald Trump’s widening crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza.

AP News
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 24, 2025

#Georgetown scholar recalls terror and ‘mockery of due process’ in immigration jail

from #AssociatedPress #AP #APNews
By OLIVIA DIAZ and BEN FINLEY
Updated 6:34 PM EDT, May 23, 2025

"Then Khan Suri had to use the plane’s bathroom. He said the guards refused to unshackle his wrists.

“They said, ‘No, you have to use it like this or do it in your trousers,’” #KhanSuri recalled of the trip, taking him to a Louisiana detention center. “They were behaving as if we were animals.”"

https://apnews.com/article/badar-khan-suri-georgetown-immigration-case-65e9a9675c29ebe91b39eb647d1d6f18?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression #ICE
#NoDeportationForBadarKhanSuri
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw #GeorgetownUniversity
#BadarKhanSuri #Palestine
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

Georgetown scholar recalls terror and 'mockery of due process' in immigration jail

A Georgetown University scholar who was targeted for deportation by the Trump administration said he was terrified in immigration jail. Badar Khan Suri told The Associated Press of using a toilet in a cramped open cell and hugging a prayer rug as if it were his son. He said it took several days to talk to his attorneys. Khan Suri was released on bond last week as his lawsuit against the U.S. government’s deportation case continues. The Trump administration denied any inhumane treatment or lack of due process. The administration said it revoked Khan Suri’s visa because he was spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism.

AP News
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 22, 2025

#ProjectEsther: #NYT Details Right-Wing Plan to “Rebrand All Critics of #Israel” as #Hamas Supporters

from #DemocracyNow
Interview with-
Katie J.M. Baker
investigative reporter for The #NewYorkTimes

Stefanie Fox
executive director of #JewishVoiceForPeace.

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/5/19/project_esther

#StopGazaGenocide
#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

Project Esther: <span class="caps">NYT</span> Details Right-Wing Plan to “Rebrand All Critics of Israel” as Hamas Supporters

A new report in The New York Times takes a deep dive into Project Esther, a policy blueprint to crush the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States from the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank best known for spearheading Project 2025. Project Esther was formed during the Biden administration and lays out plans for surveilling, silencing and punishing pro-Palestinian activists, including deporting non-U.S. citizens and withholding funds from universities. Many of the Heritage Foundation’s proposals appear to have been taken up by the Trump administration. “Project Esther aims to rebrand all critics of Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters as providing material support for terrorism,” says investigative reporter Katie Baker. “They’re very explicit that this is what they’re doing. … This is all laid out online, and it has been for months.”

Democracy Now!
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 22, 2025

#MahmoudKhalil blocked from holding son for first time by #ICE, lawyers say

Detained #Columbia University graduate and #Palestinian activist forced to meet month-old baby from behind glass

from #TheGuardian #Guardian
Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington
Wed 21 May 2025 18.24 EDT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/21/mahmoud-khalil-newborn-son?CMP=share_btn_url

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

Mahmoud Khalil blocked from holding son for first time by Ice, lawyers say

Detained Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist forced to meet month-old baby from behind glass

The Guardian
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 21, 2025

Graduates Boo #Columbia’s President at Commencement After a Fraught Year

Claire Shipman, the university’s acting president, noted the absence of #MahmoudKhalil, a graduate who continues to be detained by immigration authorities.

from #NewYorkTimes #NYT
[gift article - link can be shared. Expires in 30 days.]

By Sharon Otterman
May 21, 2025 Updated 4:08 p.m. ET

"The celebrations at smaller graduation ceremonies on Tuesday were also punctuated by anger directed at Columbia administrators. At the graduation for Columbia College, the university’s main undergraduate school, some students repeatedly interrupted Ms. Shipman’s remarks with loud jeers. At one point, they chanted “Free Mahmoud.”"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/nyregion/columbia-president-booed-commencement.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.AmRJ.IRfBvbjPRrlA&smid=url-share

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Gaza
#news #press @palestine

Graduates Boo Columbia’s President at Commencement After a Fraught Year

Claire Shipman, the university’s acting president, noted the absence of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate who continues to be detained by immigration authorities.

The New York Times
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 20, 2025

Freed from #ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia to cheers

from #AssociatedPress #APNews
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Updated 5:46 PM EDT, May 19, 2025

"NEW YORK (#AP) — Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the #Palestinian activist #MohsenMahdawi strode across the graduation stage at #ColumbiaUniversity on Monday morning, savoring a moment the #Trump administration had fought to make impossible.

Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside #Columbia’s gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody."

https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-graduation-mohsen-mahdawi-b17b3d7514d760af8835eaf909fb83ac?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia to cheers

Student activist Mohsen Mahdawi has attended his graduation from Columbia University, weeks after his release from federal custody. The legal U.S. resident was arrested during a citizenship interview as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists. A judge ordered him released weeks later. As he walked across the graduation stage Monday, he received loud applause and cheers from other graduates. He then joined a vigil calling for the release of classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains jailed in Louisiana. Mahdawi says his attendance at the graduation marked a victory over the Trump administration and a reminder to others who haven't been so fortunate.

AP News
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 18, 2025

The Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crush the Pro-Palestinian Movement

Even before President #Trump was re-elected, the #HeritageFoundation, best known for Project 2025, set out to destroy pro-#Palestinian activism in the #UnitedStates.

From #TheNewYorkTimes #NYT
[Gift article - expires in 30 days]
By Katie J.M. Baker

May 18, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

Heritage officials said they did not know whether the White House, which has its own #antisemitism task force, had used Project Esther as a guide. Administration officials declined to discuss it. But Robert Greenway, a Heritage national security director who coauthored #ProjectEsther, said it was “no coincidence that we called for a series of actions to take place privately and publicly, and they are now happening.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/us/project-esther-heritage-foundation-palestine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IE8.JoP3.DEy94beG0yWy&smid=url-share

#StopGazaGenocide
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#DefendFreeSpeech
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#Israel #Palestine
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics
#news #press @palestine

Inside the Heritage Foundation’s Plan to Crush the U.S. Palestinian Movement

Even before President Trump was re-elected, the Heritage Foundation, best known for Project 2025, set out to destroy pro-Palestinian activism in the United States.

The New York Times
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 17, 2025

“They Want to Silence Me”: #Columbia Student #MohsenMahdawi on ICE Jail, #Palestine, Activism, #Buddhism [interview]

from #DemocracyNow
May 16, 2025

"In this prison, [...], #ICE rents a section of the prison. And the section where I was, it was a mixture of three-quarters of people who have committed crimes before, and one-quarter of migrants who come in and out. And I was — my cell was C-38, the first cell in that C section where the migrants are. So, I saw waves of the migrants. Those are not just migrants. Those are the people who feed us, who plant our food, who harvest our organic, delicious #Vermont produce."

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/5/16/mohsen_mahdawi_columbia_university

#StopGazaGenocide
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#Israel #MiddleEast #WestAsia
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

“They Want to Silence Me”: Columbia Student Mohsen Mahdawi on <span class="caps">ICE</span> Jail, Palestine, Activism, Buddhism

In his first live interview since his release from ICE detention, Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi recounts the traumatic experience of his arrest and incarceration. Mahdawi, a green card holder who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, was arrested in Vermont on April 14 when he appeared for what he was told would be a citizenship interview, and spent more than two weeks in U.S. immigration custody, where he was held in retaliation for his speech in support of Palestinian rights. Mahdawi’s detention has led him to reflect on the “interconnectedness between injustices,” as multiple members of his family in Palestine have been “unjustly” incarcerated in Israeli jails. “Now I can feel their pain,” says Mahdawi. Despite the U.S. government and pro-Israel groups’ attempts to silence his calls for an end to genocide in Gaza, he adds, “I share my pain with the world.”

Democracy Now!
Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧May 17, 2025

In #Graduation Speech, #NYU Student Condemns U.S.-backed #Israeli War in Gaza

University Withholds Student’s Diploma, in Latest Flashpoint over Free Speech on U.S. Campuses

from #WorldOutlook
May 16, 2025

[contains transcript of his speech]

“We commend Logan for using this opportunity to demand an end to the bloodshed in #Gaza,” said Afaf Nasher, executive director of CAIR-NY, a Muslim civil rights organization. “We demand that NYU formally release Logan’s diploma, which he rightfully earned, and suspend any disciplinary proceedings against him.””

https://world-outlook.com/2025/05/16/in-graduation-speech-nyu-student-condemns-u-s-backed-israeli-war-in-gaza/

#StopGazaGenocide
#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#Israel #Palestine #MiddleEast #WestAsia
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

In Graduation Speech, NYU Student Condemns U.S.-backed Israeli War in Gaza

On May 14, Logan Rozos, a student at New York University (NYU), gave a brief but powerful speech during the graduation ceremony of Gallatin, a liberal arts school within NYU. In his remarks (transcribed by World-Outlook from the video of Rozos’ speech, and published in this post), the student condemned the U.S.-backed Israeli war on the Palestinian people in Gaza. NYU immediately announced it is withholding the student’s diploma as it pursues disciplinary actions against him, in the latest flashpoint between free speech principles and punishment for pro-Palestinian advocacy on U.S. college campuses.

World-Outlook