By Alyssa Lukpat

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied Mahmoud Khalil's request to attend the birth of his first child as the Columbia University student remains held in Louisiana.

Federal agents arrested Khalil, who helped lead pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, in New York last month when his wife, Noor Abdalla, was eight months pregnant. His attorneys had tried to rush his legal cases so he could be out of custody by the time his wife, an American citizen, gave birth.

After ICE declined his appeal to be released over the weekend, according to emails viewed by The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, he listened to part of his son's birth by phone.

Immigration officials arrested Khalil as part of President Trump's executive orders targeting antisemitism on college campuses. His arrest was the first high-profile detainment of a student under the orders. The State Department said Khalil is deportable because of potential foreign-policy consequences.

An immigration judge ruled earlier this month that the government could deport Khalil, a graduate student who had a green card. A federal judge in New York ordered that Khalil remain in the U.S. as his separate case over constitutional claims plays out.

Khalil was still detained in Jena, La., on Sunday morning when his wife went into labor in New York City, eight days ahead of her due date, according to the emails. His lawyers asked for him to be temporarily released and offered to have him wear a GPS ankle monitor.

"A two week furlough in this civil detention matter would be both reasonable and humane so that both parents can be present for the birth of their first child," his lawyers wrote in an email Sunday to ICE's New Orleans field office director.

The director, Mellissa Harper, responded shortly after, saying, "After consideration of the submitted information and a review of your client's case, your request for furlough is denied."

ICE referred a request for comment to the Department of Homeland Security, which didn't return a request for comment Tuesday.

"My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud," Abdalla said Monday. "ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud's support for Palestinian freedom."

Khalil's attorneys said he had prepared all his wife's meals during her pregnancy.

Khalil, 30, and Abdalla, a dentist who grew up mostly in Michigan, married in 2023. She was with him in the lobby of his apartment building as agents handcuffed him and led him away.

He was later taken to the ICE detention center in Louisiana. Immigration authorities have moved several arrested students to the state.

One of the students, Rumeysa Ozturk of Tufts University, was arrested in Massachusetts weeks after Khalil and taken to Louisiana. She had co-written an opinion piece last year related to the Israel-Gaza war that was published in the school's student newspaper.

A federal judge in Vermont, where one of her cases is being heard, ordered last week that the government move Ozturk to the state no later than May 1.

Write to Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 22, 2025 14:10 ET (18:10 GMT)

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