Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist who was detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at his Columbia University-owned apartment back in March, sat down with CBS News New York’s Dick Brennan for an interview Friday.
He discussed protests on Columbia’s campus and his lawsuit against the Trump administration.
“It’s retaliation against freedom of expression”
Khalil is a green card holder who was held in Louisiana for more than three months while the Trump administration pushed to have him deported.
“Inside, basically it was very cold. The food was pretty bad. Just the condition in general. The fact that over 70 men are in one space, so you don’t have privacy whatsoever,” he said.
A federal judge ordered Khalil’s release in June while his immigration proceedings play out.
Khalil called his arrest punishment by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel.
“It’s retaliation against freedom of expression, against dissent from what this administration or the establishment of this country want us to speak about,” he said.
Ted Shaffrey / AP 
The Trump administration did not accuse Khalil of committing any crimes, but said he should be deported because he “led activities aligned to Hamas.”
Officials also alleged that the student activist had deliberately misrepresented information about himself on his green card application and violated the conditions under which he had been allowed to enter and live in the United States.
“If you tell us when you apply for your visa, ‘And by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities, I intend to shut down your universities.’ If you told us all these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March.
“They’ve waged a lawfare against me”
Khalil is now suing the Trump administration for $20 million. He says it’s to “seek accountability.”
“They’ve waged a lawfare against me. They’ve misrepresented my statements or what I did, and they have to pay for that,” he said. “They have to pay for that so that it would act as a deterrence from doing this against others.”
In his claim, Khalil alleges “false arrest,” “malicious prosecution” and “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Mary Altaffer / AP 
But the Trump administration called Khalil’s claims “absurd” and said it was “Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus,” condemning what they describe as “hateful behavior and rhetoric.”
“I say, show us the evidence. The Trump administration has failed to present any evidence,” Khalil said. “What I was engaged in is simply opposing a genocide against my people, opposing the killings of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Palestine.”
“Feelings are not facts”
As a Columbia graduate student, Khalil was front and center at many pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus in April 2024.
At the time, some students told CBS News New York the protests made them fearful.
“I left campus ’cause I didn’t feel safe and it was also the holiday of Passover,” Andrew Stein said.
“People were banging on my doors in the middle of the night because I came out publicly and was speaking as a proud Jew who supports the state of Israel,” Noa Fay said.
Reuters/Caitlin Ochs 
Brennan asked Khalil, “Do you understand why some Jewish students might feel threatened not just on Columbia, but at campuses around the country?”
“We need to distinguish between being uncomfortable and between being unsafe. So, there should be a distinction between these two,” Khalil said. “I can understand how these protests may make someone uncomfortable, hearing that your country or a country that you support is committing a genocide. I can understand that, but feelings are not facts.”
Israel and its supporters denounce charges that it’s committing genocide.
“Simply they are calls for freedom and justice”
Khalil continued, “Chants that we don’t like may be— we may feel, like, threatened by it, but it doesn’t mean that you are threatened, and this is when I say that we need to distinguish between feelings and facts.”
The meaning of slogans such as “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the Intifada” are being “deliberately misrepresented” and “distorted,” he said.
“Simply they are calls for freedom and justice. ‘From the river to the sea,’ it’s a call for freedom, and justice for everyone. Everyone,” Khalil said.
“Other people would see it very differently, though, right?” Brennan asked.
“No because people interpret what they want to do,” Khalil said.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images 
He added, “Intifada is simply an uprising, and to globalize the Intifada is to globalize the solidarity, the uprising against injustices around the world.”
As for the future, Khalil says he will be prioritizing his family, but continue protesting.
“When you look back over the past couple of years, do you ever say to yourself, ah, I might have done this differently?” Brennan asked.
“Absolutely. I could have communicated better, built more bridges, but the core thing, which is opposing a genocide, opposing a war, I wouldn’t have changed that,” Khalil said.
