Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and brought greater than 1,300 miles away from house to an ICE facility affected by darkish, abusive histories.
Khalil, a authorized everlasting resident whose spouse is a U.S. citizen and at present eight months pregnant, was arrested over the weekend for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia College.
He was taken to LaSalle Correctional Facility, a for-profit ICE facility that operated as a juvenile correctional middle till it was shut down for tear-gassing and pepper-spraying kids, in response to an ACLU report.
Since changing into an ICE facility, LaSalle has run rampant with sexual assault, with a 2024 audit discovering that the power violated a number of federal requirements underneath the Jail Rape Elimination Act.
In 2016, three immigrants died at LaSalle within the span of six months. The next yr, one other immigrant died, prompting an investigation.
Now, the detainment of Khalil within the LaSalle facility has individuals throughout the nation frightened.
Mahmoud Khalil
In a Tuesday press convention hosted by ReThink Media, Iranian-American human rights lawyer Yasmine Taeb defined that Khalil’s switch to LaSalle was “absolutely” intentional.
“I’m astonished and disgusted,” she mentioned, explaining that the administration doubtless despatched him there as a approach to get Khalil to willingly revoke his personal authorized everlasting residency.
As a result of situations within the facility are so harmful and unlivable, Taeb mentioned that asylum seekers would slightly “face potential death in their home country than stay in this hell hole.”
Abed Ayoub, nationwide govt director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee echoed Taeb’s sentiment.
“They are usually taken to remote areas where it is hard to get an attorney,” he mentioned in the course of the press convention.
Ayoud defined that that is completely different from a prison continuing the place a defendant can be saved close to the placement of the listening to. On this case, ICE can transfer Khalil “as they see fit.”
“Oftentimes, the families can go days or weeks without hearing from the individuals,” he added.
Ayoub additionally warned that we are going to doubtless see using “secret evidence” as Khalil’s case unfolds.
Secret or labeled proof, which has been utilized in immigration proceedings because the Fifties, is proof that the U.S. Division of Justice doesn’t share with the defendant, making it almost unattainable for a person or their attorneys to determine a protection.
In the meantime, President Donald Trump has been celebrating the arrest of Khalil, who he likened to a terrorist sympathizer, saying that this is only one of many arrests to come back.
“This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump wrote on Fact Social.
On Monday, a federal choose briefly blocked Trump’s try to deport Khalil. Decide Jesse Furman ordered a listening to on Khalil’s case in New York Metropolis on Wednesday.
Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, mentioned in an announcement obtained by CNN that Khalil’s spouse was current throughout his arrest. Greer spoke with Khalil on Monday, saying that he was “healthy and his spirits are undaunted by his predicament.”
“He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent, in violation of the First Amendment,” she mentioned within the assertion. “The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful.”
Trump’s actions foreshadow a darkish future as he gears as much as enact a revised and strengthened Muslim ban, which incorporates language that many are involved may very well be used to focus on present visa and inexperienced card holders, like Khalil.
“You may soon live in a country where you can assault a police officer and storm the Capitol to overturn a Democratic election and walk off scot-free,” Jamal Abdi, president of the Nationwide Iranian American Council mentioned in the course of the press convention.
“But if you attend a peaceful anti-war rally,” he added, “you could be deported.”
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