“Love Is Liberation”: Detained Palestinian Father’s Letter to His Newborn Exposes U.S. Hypocrisy on Family Values

Khalil, a U.S. green card holder, has yet to meet his newborn son. He was arrested in March by ICE agents—without a warrant and in front of his pregnant wife, Nour Abdullah, who was then in her eighth month.

He has since been held in a Louisiana detention center over a thousand miles from home, due to his student activism at Columbia University, which the Trump administration has labeled a “foreign policy threat.”

A Father’s Tears, a Nation’s Pain: Love, Liberation, and Loss Behind Bars

 In his op-ed, Khalil described the heartbreaking moment he was forced to witness his son’s birth through a jailhouse phone call.

“In your first moments, I buried my face in my arms and lowered my voice, so the 70 other men in this concrete room wouldn’t see my teary eyes or hear me choke up. I’m suffocated by rage and the cruelty of a system that denied your mother and me this experience. Why do faceless politicians have the power to steal these sacred moments from people?”

Khalil stressed that his case is not unique—it reflects the wider reality endured by countless Palestinian fathers.

“Like many Palestinian fathers, I’ve been separated from you by racist systems and faraway prisons. In Palestine, this pain is daily life. Children are born every day without their fathers—not because they leave, but because they are killed by bombs, jailed, or erased by the cold machinery of occupation. The sorrow your mother and I feel is only a drop in the ocean of grief Palestinian families have endured for generations.”

He also reflected on his connection with other fathers in detention:“I recognize the look in their eyes. As I sit here reflecting on the miracle of your birth, I wonder how many firsts will be sacrificed at the altar of U.S. government policies,” he wrote. He called out American politicians for their hypocrisy: “The same officials who preach ‘family values’ are the ones tearing families apart.”

In a heartfelt message to his son, he wrote:“My love for you is deeper than anything I’ve ever known. Loving you is not separate from fighting for liberation—it is liberation. I fight for you, and for every Palestinian child who deserves safety, tenderness, and freedom. I hope you’ll one day stand tall, knowing your father wasn’t absent by accident—but by conviction.”

After the birth, his wife Nour Abdullah said in a statement that ICE and the Trump administration “stole irreplaceable moments” from their family.

“My son and I should not have spent our first days on this earth without Mahmoud. These precious moments were taken from us in an effort to silence his voice in support of Palestinian freedom.”

In March, Galoni Amor, a lawyer and reproductive justice advocate, wrote that Khalil’s case isn’t merely about immigration or free speech—it’s a core reproductive justice issue. He urged U.S. advocacy groups to act:“If reproductive justice organizations can’t stand up when a Palestinian father is disappeared while his wife prepares to give birth, what is their commitment really worth? What’s the point of demanding ‘freedom to parent’ if they ignore families of color systematically denied the right to raise their children in dignity and safety?”

Khalil’s case unfolds amid an intensifying crackdown by the Trump administration on international students and U.S. residents who support Palestine or criticize Israeli policy. Recently, Fulbright scholar Rumeysa Ozturk was released after being detained over a peace-oriented op-ed—branded a “national security threat.”

Reports indicate that since Khalil’s detention, U.S. authorities have sought to deport hundreds of international students on tenuous grounds, including minor traffic offenses or even being victims of domestic abuse.

Khalil concluded his op-ed with a message to his son:“You may one day ask why people are punished for defending Palestine, and why truth and empathy are seen as threats to power. These are difficult questions—but I hope our story shows you this: the world needs more courage, not less. It needs people who choose justice over personal comfort.”