New Orleans activists make the trek to protest Mahmoud Khalil's detention
JENA – A group of protesters headed Thursday from New Orleans to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in LaSalle Parish to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil. The former Columbia University student and pro-Palestine activist was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March and has since been held in detention.
Khalil was in immigration court Thursday for a hearing on a motion from his attorneys to terminate his deportation proceedings and release him. The hearing, which began in the morning, was still ongoing by mid-afternoon.
By early afternoon, hundreds of protesters had gathered in the grass across from the detention facility, chanting, flying Palestinian flags and playing drums. Some members of the group kneeled and prayed on the street.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident who was born in Syria, faces deportation for his involvement with pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last year. He is one of a number of people the Trump administration has detained over their political activities in the last several months, drawing alarm from free speech activists.
Kristi Dayemo, 29, arrived at First Grace Methodist Church on Canal Street for a bus ride to the ICE facility in Jena, along with other New Orleans residents.
Dayemo said she comes from a service-oriented family and that she has a spirit to help people. Her parents raised her to have a duty to make the world a better place.
'If we allow him to be arrested without a warrant and deported from this country it calls into question all students that aren't from here, whether or not they're allowed to have their First Amendment rights,' Dayemo said.
On the way to the facility from New Orleans Thursday morning, organizers handed out snacks and prepared the riders for their day of action. Sabrine Mohamad, a human rights lawyer traveling with the group, spoke to riders on the bus ahead of the arrival to Jena.
'Today is so much bigger than Mahmoud, it's so much bigger than all of the students that have been kidnapped by ICE. This is really a vital moment in the history of the United States democracy and Palestine,' Mohamad said.
On the way to the facility, organizers handed out snacks and prepared the riders for their day of action. Protesters discussed current events, while removing biometric authentication from their phones and writing loved ones' phone numbers on their arms in preparation for potential arrests.
Sabrine Mohamad, a human rights lawyer traveling with the group, spoke to riders on the bus ahead of the arrival to Jena.
'Today is so much bigger than Mahmoud, it's so much bigger than all of the students that have been kidnapped by ICE. This is really a vital moment in the history of the United States democracy and palestine' Mohamad said.
Once arriving in Jena, the New Orleans protesters joined with another group that had come in from Texas. Organizers disembarked from their buses, prepared their drums and signs and began marching towards the ICE detention center. The group was greeted by facility guards who kept them from setting foot on the property.
Noor Abdalla, Khalid's wife, came out to the crowd to thank them for their demonstrations, saying that they are keeping Khalil going as he faces deportation. Abdalla had visited with Khalil on Thursday with their newborn son, Deen. It was his first meeting with the boy, who was born while Khalil was in detention.
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This article first appeared on Verite News New Orleans and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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