New Footage Confirms ICE Lied and Had No Reason to Detain Mahmoud Khalil
NEW YORK, NY – Newly released surveillance footage from Columbia University shows Mr. Khalil complied and cooperated with officers in his lobby on March 8 after ICE agents illegally entered his private Columbia-owned apartment building without a judicial warrant. This directly contradicts the Trump administration’s false claims that Mahmoud Khalil attempted to flee when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers illegally arrested him in retaliation for his advocacy for Palestinian rights. In light of the new video evidence, Mr. Khalil’s legal team filed a renewed request with the immigration court that his case be terminated based on ICE’s egregious actions in arresting Mr. Khalil without a warrant or any legal basis whatsoever.
The video — obtained by Mr. Khalil’s legal team through a subpoena with which Columbia complied — supports previous statements and video footage taken by his U.S. citizen wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, describing Mr. Khalil’s arrest as rogue and lawless. It confirms the Trump administration’s previous admission that ICE officers lied to Mr. Khalil about having a warrant when arresting him, and that the post-hoc any attempts by ICE to justify his arrest by alleging he tried to flee are unequivocally false.
Shortly after Mr. Khalil’s illegal arrest, DHS transferred him 1,400 miles away to a Louisiana detention facility — ripping him away from his then pregnant wife and legal counsel. His legal team continues to challenge his arrest and continued detention as retaliatory and in violation of his rights under the First Amendment and due process.
ICE denied Mr. Khalil’s request to be at his wife’s side as she went into labor last month, causing him to miss the birth of their son on Monday, April 21. An immigration hearing is scheduled for this Thursday.
Mr. Khalil is represented by Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights, CLEAR, Van Der Hout LLP, Washington Square Legal Services, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of New Jersey, and the ACLU of Louisiana.
The following are quotes from Mr. Khalil’s legal team:
“The world now knows ICE unconstitutionally arrested Mahmoud in retaliation for his defense of Palestinian rights and lives," said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR. “After the government finally admitted that agents did not even have an administrative warrant for Mahmoud’s arrest, this video is the nail in the coffin of ICE’s lies: it shows, plain as day, that Mahmoud was calm and collected and that he never tried to run.”
“The Trump administration can lie all they want, but this surveillance footage couldn’t be clearer: plainclothes, warrantless ICE agents ambushed Mr. Khalil in his lobby and he complied without any dispute or attempts to flee,” said Veronica Salama, staff attorney at the NYCLU. “During this horrifying 10-minute encounter, Mr. Khalil remained calm and cooperated — in fact, he turned to his 8-months pregnant wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and said, ‘Habibi, it’s fine.’ This footage only confirms what Mr. Khalil and Dr. Abdalla have said all along: that the ICE officers acted outside the law, and that this arrest was illegal and unjustified.”
“The recently obtained footage further confirms that Mr. Khalil fully complied with the orders of the ICE officers conducting his illegal arrest, refuting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) false assertions to the immigration court that he attempted to flee arrest,” said Johnny Sinodis who, with his partner Marc Van Der Hout, is representing Mahmoud Khalil in his immigration proceedings. “The egregious conduct of ICE in not only conducting this illegal arrest, but also lying about the circumstances to Mr. Khalil, his attorney, and the Court, require that his removal proceedings be terminated. Further highlighting ICE’s rampant illegality, a DHS whistleblower revealed just last week that DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) initiated an investigation into Mr. Khalil’s unlawful, warrantless arrest days before that office was dissolved in March 2025, showing even DHS itself was concerned with the manner in which Mr. Khalil was taken into custody.”
“The footage released today of Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest couldn’t be clearer – the Trump administration’s claims that Mr. Khalil resisted arrest are false,” said Amol Sinha, executive director at the ACLU of New Jersey. “His unlawful arrest is a result of deliberate targeting by the federal government in retaliation for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights. It’s past time for the courts to release him and send him home.”
“Claiming that Mahmoud tried to flee instead of acknowledging that they made an unlawful arrest is one of the government's tried-and-true tactics of blame shifting rather than taking responsibility for their actions,” said Amy Greer, associate attorney at Dratel & Lewis. “But we have proof that Mahmoud complied with law enforcement. Now it is time for the government to admit that it made an unlawful arrest, dismiss this case, and free Mahmoud. This unconstitutional persecution of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and freedom must end here and now.”
Court Case: Khalil v. Trump
Affiliates: New Jersey, New York