Jena, Louisiana - Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil has penned a new letter urging continued support for Palestinian freedom as he fights his immigration detention.

"My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner," opens the letter, dictated over the phone from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.

"I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law."

Khalil, a green card holder and prominent member of Columbia University's Palestine liberation movement, was transferred to the Louisiana facility after his sudden arrest on March 8. He was taken away from his wife, who is eight months pregnant with their first child.

Daily Horoscope Today's horoscope: Free daily horoscope for Monday, March 17, 2025

The incident – captured on video – has sparked global outrage and increased fears for free speech and protest rights.

"My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night," Khalil wrote in his new letter.

"With January’s ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom."

Born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, Khalil compared his experience to that of countless Palestinians in arbitrary Israeli detention.

"I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention – imprisonment without trial or charge – to strip Palestinians of their rights," the recent Columbia graduate wrote, adding, "For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace."

Khalil blamed successive US administrations for enabling Israel's unrelenting attacks on the Palestinian people.

Joke of the Day Joke of the Day for March 19, 2025: Popping jokes to get your funny on

"My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the US has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention," Khalil charged.

"For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted."

Khalil's detention came as students around the country have risen up in support of Palestinian freedom and against the US government's continued support for the apartheid state of Israel.

Many have stood strong despite repressive measures by university administrations, including militarized police crackdowns at Columbia and other campuses across the nation.

"If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation," Khalil dictated.

"The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent," he continued, warning that his arrest is not likely to be the last.

"Visa-holders, green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs," Khalil cautioned. "In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all."

Khalil vowed to continue speaking out for justice for Palestine even as he fights for his own release from ICE detention.

"Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child," he wrote.