'Cruel and inhuman': Mahmoud Khalil's wife says ICE denied him permission to hold their newborn son

Time of India

22-05-2025

Mahmoud Khalil and his wife Noor Abdalla
The wife of detained Columbia University pro-Palestinian graduate
Mahmoud Khalil
has accused the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (
ICE
) of not granting him permission to hold his newborn son, leaving him with no choice but to see the baby from behind a glass at the detention facility in Louisiana.
This was the first meeting between the father and the infant as Khalil, in detention since March and facing deportation, was
denied permission
to be with his wife, US national Noor Abdalla, for the birth of their child. Their son was born in April.
"I am furious at the cruelty and inhumanity of this system that dares to call itself just," Abdalla, a Michigan-born dentist, said in a statement.
"After flying over a thousand miles with our newborn son, his very first flight, all so his father could finally hold him in his arms, ICE has denied us even this most basic human right.
This is not just heartless. It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse. And I cannot ignore the echoes of this pain in the stories of Palestinian families, torn apart by Israeli military prison and bombs, denied dignity, denied life.
We will fight until Mahmoud is home," she added.
The statement noted that Abdalla flew 1,400 miles from New York City to Center Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, to meet Mahmoud.
The facility's refusal to allow Khalil to hold his child is in violation of ICE's own directives, including one which "affirms the importance of minimizing disruptions to family life and preserving parental rights," it further stated.