Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil is comparing his time in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility to Nazi concentration camps.
In an op-ed recently published by the Washington Post, Khalil said he was on a bunk bed in Jena, Louisiana, surrounded by 70 other men who were also in ICE custody.
He wrote:
I pick up my copy of Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” I feel ashamed to compare my conditions in ICE detention with Nazi concentration camps, yet, some aspects of Frankl’s experience resonate: not knowing what fate awaits me; seeing resignation and defeat in my fellow detainees.
…
I write this letter as the sun rises, hoping that the suspension of my rights will raise alarm bells that yours are already in jeopardy. I hope it will inspire your outrage that the most basic human instinct, to protest shameless massacre, is being repressed by obscure laws, racist propaganda and a state terrified of an awakened public.
In March, ICE officials arrested Khalil, a Palestinian activist and graduate of Columbia University who led radical protests on the campus, Breitbart News reported.
The outlet noted, “President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport foreign students who were fomenting anti-Israel and antisemitic protests on campus, which exploded under President Joe Biden in the wake of the October 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas in Israel.”
Weeks later, several Columbia University graduates tore up their diplomas during a protest against the Trump administration and Khalil’s arrest.
Khalil is reportedly a spokesman for the anti-Israel group called Columbia Apartheid United Divest.
A federal judge recently ruled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the legal authority to cancel Khalil’s visa after he led pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University, per Breitbart News.
“To justify the expulsion, Rubio cited an existing law that allows him to cancel visas held by foreigners,” the report said.
