ICE Blocked Mahmoud Khalil From His Son's Birth

Mahmoud Khalil is a new dad, but he'll have to wait to see his firstborn. The Columbia University grad student and legal permanent resident, who was detained in March by federal agents over his pro-Palestinian stance, missed his son's birth on Monday in New York after officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement rebuffed his request to be by his wife's side, reports NPR. According to correspondence seen by the outlet, Khalil's legal team wrote to ICE on Sunday, noting that his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, had gone into labor eight days early and that he'd like to return from where he's being held in Louisiana on a two-week conditional release to be with her and the baby, per the AP.

"Mr. Khalil would be open to any combination of conditions that would allow furlough from ICE's perspective, including a GPS ankle monitor and/or scheduled check-ins," the letter noted. The request was still a no-go: Less than an hour later, an ICE official from the New Orleans field office sent a curt reply to Khalil's team via email, writing, "After consideration of the submitted information and a review of your client's case, your request for furlough is denied." "He had certainly hoped and expected that the government would show some humanity. But they did not," a Khalil attorney told NPR, adding that Khalil was "happy to be a father, but "extremely disappointed that he couldn't be there to support his wife, be there to hold his first child."

Abdalla, who's a US citizen from Michigan, and her newborn are both doing fine, but she's similarly distressed over the government's decision, noting it "was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer." She added: "My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud's support for Palestinian freedom." The Trump administration has said that Khalil, who hasn't been charged with criminal conduct, is being deported as a threat to US foreign policy, per the Guardian. A judge earlier this month said Khalil can be deported; his team plans to appeal. (More Immigration and Customs Enforcement stories.)