Name: Mahmoud Khalil: ‘The Trump administration wanted to make an example out of me’ | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-07-19T18:53:38.000Z
Duration: 6 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Mahmoud Khalil is a Columbia University graduate.

Basic passive voice

He was arrested by US immigration agents on the 8th of March.

Participle clauses

The US government wanted to deport him, arguing his activism was detrimental to its foreign policy interests.

But in late June, after spending more than 100 days in immigration detention, a federal judge ruled that Mr. Khalil was not a flight risk or threat to his community and could be released.

Mahmoud Khalil sat down with our correspondent Nomi Iqbal and told her about his experience.

Being separated from Noor at the time of her pregnancy was the most horrifying thing that happened to me.

And that was the only thing that I was thinking about.

I wasn't really much concerned about my deportation as much as I was concerned about the well-being of Noor, about being with her, about what's actually happening there.

And I was fearing the moment that the birth of my son would come and they wouldn't be there.

You did ask, though, didn't you, to be at the birth of your son?

And that was, again, the minimum that they could do.

However, what happens is not about bureaucracy.

It was measured, calculated cruelty by the administration against me.

They wanted, the Trump administration wanted to make an example out of me so that anyone who would dare to speak against this administration and speak against Israel crimes in Palestine, they would be punished.

And yeah, this is what should scare everyone in this country.

Everyone should be scared of this administration's overreach and just a blatant ignorance of the rule of law, of due process, because it's not about non-citizens or about Palestinians.

It's about anyone who dares to speak against power in this country.

Getting on to the Trump administration, they have accused you of being anti-Semitic, a Hamas supporter, and they say that your actions pose a threat to US foreign policy and their big foreign policies to crack down on anti-Semitism.

These accusations are absurd and dangerous at the same time.

And I take anti-Semitism and racism concerns, discrimination very seriously.

But these, they don't have any place in the Palestine liberation movement in this country.

And Jewish students and just Jewish citizens in this country are an integral part of the Palestine liberation movement.

So it's just the anti-Semitism accusation or the terrorism accusations are just smokescreen.

They're trying to weaponize anti-Semitism against freedom of speech because they want to shut down the conversation.

They don't want anyone to discuss Israeli crimes.

They don't want anyone to discuss US complicity in the genocide in Gaza.

And it's the same happening with conflating pro-Palestine activism with pro-terror activism, because their goal is not to actually reflect on what these protesters are protesting about.

Their concern is just like to shut down that conversation.

And if there is, I mean, I was so, once again, like I was so sort of, like I laughed when I saw that allegation about foreign policy threat, because in my mind at that point, if it's the threat to Israel, US foreign policy, there isn't any threat, it's thriving.

But if they say it's about combating anti-Semitism, it is this administration, the Trump administration that's actually fueling anti-Semitism, whether in the United States or around the world by siding with right-wing parties across Europe, notably the new Nazi AfD, Germany's AfD, or by supporting a state that's committing a genocide in the name of the Jewish people.

What do you make of the criticism that there is that some people have who say, well, you're green cards, you're not an American.

And so you have to abide by certain rules that the same rules for Americans don't apply to you and that you're here stirring trouble.

The US constitution is very clear that freedom of speech expands to everyone in this country, regardless of their status, whether citizens or not citizens.

And the other thing I was protesting was simply, I did not want my tuition fees, my tax money to be used towards supporting Israel, a country that's killing my people.

It's actually everyone's duty to oppose war crimes, to oppose a genocide.

It's not whether you are a citizen or not, because this is a very dangerous mindset to think that some people have rights and other peoples don't have rights, because then it's not democracy for all.

And I don't believe that democracy should be that way.

Did you get any support from your university at all?

Because we've seen Columbia University saying that it's unsafe for Jewish students and what have you.

Did you feel that anything was being done for someone like you or for others who, Arab students, for example?

Columbia University failed all its students, including Palestinians, Muslims, Jewish, and basically all the student body, they failed them.

And in my case, Columbia did not provide any support whatsoever.

They did not even contact me, now four months after my arrest.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Mahmoud Khalil: ‘The Trump administration wanted to make an example out of me’ | BBC News

mindset

thrive

conversation

fear