Anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil speaks out after release from Louisiana lockup

Anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil lamented leaving behind some “incredible men” on Friday as he left a Louisiana detention facility, which he hopes becomes a museum to what he described as “America’s racist policies.” “I leave some incredible men behind me, over 1,000 people behind me, in a place where they shouldn’t have been in the first place,” Khalil told reporters after walking out of the La Salle Detention Facility in Jena, La. “I hope the next time that I will be in Jena is to actually visit this as a museum on America’s racist policies against immigrants,” the former Columbia University student added. After being picked up by federal immigration authorities on March 8, Khalil spent 104 days at the rural Louisiana detention center as the Trump administration fought to deport the Syrian-born permanent resident for allegedly engaging in activities “aligned to Hamas,” a Palestinian terror group, while studying at Columbia. “The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here,” Khalil charged outside the detention center, “whether you are a US citizen, an immigrant, or just a person on this land doesn’t mean that you are less of a human.” “[President Trump] and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this,” he said defiantly.“That doesn’t mean that there is a right person.”  Khalil, wearing a keffiyeh, went on to slam his alma mater, accusing the Ivy League school of “investing in the genocide of the Palestinian people.” “There is no right person who should be detained, who are actually protesting a genocide, for protesting their university – Columbia University – that is investing in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” he said. Newark federal Judge Michael Farbiarz, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ordered Khalil’s release earlier Friday, finding that the Trump administration may be unfairly holding him in retaliation for his outspoken stanc...