{"id":40326,"date":"2025-03-17T12:21:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=40326"},"modified":"2025-03-17T12:21:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T19:21:51","slug":"this-felt-like-a-kidnapping-because-it-was-family-of-mahmoud-khalil-releases-arrest-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/17\/this-felt-like-a-kidnapping-because-it-was-family-of-mahmoud-khalil-releases-arrest-video\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This Felt Like a Kidnapping Because It Was’: Family of Mahmoud Khalil Releases Arrest Video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"screen<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The family of Mahmoud Khalil released a video of his March 8, 2025 arrest by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents in New York City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo: screen grab\/Family of Mahmoud Khalil)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khalil’s wife said that “officers in plain clothes\u2014who refused to show us a warrant, speak with our attorney, or even tell us their names\u2014forced my husband into an unmarked car and took him away from me.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar 14, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States now at risk of deportation because he helped lead pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last spring, on Friday released a video of his recent arrest<\/a> by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents in New York City, which has sparked legal battles<\/a> and protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re watching the most terrifying moment of my life,” Khalil’s wife<\/a>, Noor, said in a statement about the two-minute video. “This felt like a kidnapping because it was: Officers in plain clothes\u2014who refused to show us a warrant, speak with our attorney, or even tell us their names\u2014forced my husband into an unmarked car and took him away from me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone should be alarmed and urgently calling for the freedom of Mahmoud and all other students under attack for their advocacy for Palestinian human rights.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They threatened to take me too, even though we were calm and fully cooperating. For the next 38 hours after this video, neither I or our lawyers knew where Mahmoud was being held. Now, he’s over 1,000 miles from home, still being wrongfully detained by U.S. immigration,” said Noor, whose husband is detained at a facility in Jena, Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noor, who is eight months pregnant, noted that “Mahmoud has repeatedly warned of growing threats from Columbia University and the U.S. government unjustly targeting students who want to see an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza<\/a>. Now, the Trump administration and DHS are targeting him, and other students<\/a> too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mahmoud is clearly the first of many to be illegally repressed for their speech in support of Palestinian rights,” she added. “Everyone should be alarmed and urgently calling for the freedom of Mahmoud and all other students under attack for their advocacy for Palestinian human rights.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/theCCR\/status\/1900653363353841795?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1900653363353841795%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fmahmoud-khalil-video<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khalil, who finished his graduate studies at Columbia in December, is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent. He was living in the United States with a green card until his arrest on Saturday. In response to a filing by his legal team\u2014which includes Amy Greer from Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) project\u2014a judge has temporarily blocked his deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ACLU and its New York arm have joined Khalil’s legal team, and his attorneys filed an amended petition and complaint<\/a> on Thursday. NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said that with the new “filing, we are making it crystal clear that no president can arrest, detain, or deport anyone for disagreeing with the government. The Trump administration has selectively targeted Mr. Khalil, a student, husband, and father-to-be who has not been accused of a single crime, to send a message of just how far they will go to crack down on dissent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But we at the NYCLU and ACLU won’t stand for it\u2014under the Constitution, the Trump administration has no basis to continue this cruel weaponization of Mr. Khalil’s life,” Lieberman added. “The court must release Mr. Khalil immediately and let him go home to his family in New York, where he belongs. Ideas are not illegal, and dissent is not grounds for deportation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samah Sisay of CCR reiterated those messages as the arrest video circulated on Friday, saying that “Mr. Khalil was taken by plainclothes DHS agents in front of his pregnant wife without any legal justification. Mr. Khalil must be freed because the government cannot use these coercive tactics to unlawfully suppress his First Amendment protected speech in support of Palestinian rights.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The family of Mahmoud Khalil released a video of his March 8, 2025 arrest by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents in New York City.  (Photo: screen grab\/Family of Mahmoud Khalil) Khalil’s wife said that “officers in plain clothes\u2014who refused to show us a warrant, speak with our attorney, or… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40326"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40327,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40326\/revisions\/40327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}