Mahmoud Khalil permitted to hold newborn son for the first time despite government objections

NEW YORK AP Detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was allowed to hold his -month-old son for the first time Thursday after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration s efforts to keep the father and infant separated by a plexiglass barrier The visit came ahead of a scheduled immigration hearing for Khalil a legal permanent resident and Columbia University graduate who has been detained in a Louisiana jail since March Khalil was the first person arrested under President Donald Trump s promised crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters and is one of the insufficient who has remained in custody as his circumstance winds its way through both immigration and federal court Federal administration have not accused Khalil of a crime but they have sought to deport him on the basis that his prominent role in protests against Israel s war in Gaza may have undermined U S foreign guidelines interests His request to attend his son s April birth was denied last month by U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement The question of whether Khalil would be permitted to hold his newborn child or forced to meet him through a barrier had sparked days of legal fighting triggering states by Khalil s attorneys that he is being subject to political retaliation by the cabinet On Wednesday night a federal judge in New Jersey Michael Farbiarz intervened allowing the meeting to go forward Thursday morning according to Khalil s attorneys The judge s order came after federal executives commented this week they would oppose his attorney s effort to secure what s known as a contact visit between Khalil his wife Noor Abdalla and their son Deen Instead they mentioned Khalil could be allowed a non-contact visit meaning he would be separated from his wife and son by a plastic divider and not allowed to touch them Granting Khalil this relief of family visitation would effectively grant him a privilege that no other detainee receives Justice Department agents wrote in a court filing on Wednesday Allowing Dr Abdalla and a newborn to attend a legal meeting would turn a legal visitation into a family one Brian Acuna acting director of the ICE field office in New Orleans mentioned in an accompanying affidavit that it would be unsafe to allow Mr Khalil s wife and newborn child into a secured part of the facility In their own legal filings Khalil s attorneys described the leadership s refusal to grant the visit as further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr Khalil s arrest and faraway detention adding that his wife and son were the farthest thing from a precaution liability They noted that Abdalla had traveled nearly miles kilometers to the remote detention center in hopes of introducing their son to his father This is not just heartless Abdalla commented of the governing body s position It is deliberate violence the calculated cruelty of a authorities 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 Farbiarz is in the present considering Khalil s petition for release as he appeals a Louisiana immigration judge s ruling that he can be deported from the country On Thursday Khalil appeared before that immigration judge Jamee Comans as his attorneys presented testimony about the risks he would face if he were to be deported to Syria where he grew up in a refugee camp or Algeria where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative His attorneys submitted testimony from Columbia University faculty and students attesting to Khalil s character In one declaration Joseph Howley a classics professor at Columbia disclosed he had first introduced Khalil to a university administrator to serve as a spokesperson on behalf of campus protesters describing him as a upstanding principled and well-respected member of our society I have never known Mahmoud to espouse any anti-Jewish sentiments or prejudices and have heard him forcefully reject antisemitism on multiple occasions Howley wrote No ruling regarding the appeal was made on Thursday Comans gave lawyers in the circumstance until p m June to submit written closing arguments Columbia s interim president Claire Shipman acknowledged Mahmoud s absence from Wednesday s commencement ceremony and revealed multiple students were mourning that he couldn t be present Her speech drew loud boos from chosen graduates along with chants of free Mahmoud