Mahmoud Khalil, center, and his wife Noor Abdalla, left, in violet headscarf, at Columbia University last year.
Mary Altaffer/AP
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Mary Altaffer/AP
Immigration authorities denied an urgent request by Mahmoud Khalil to be temporarily released from detention, under monitoring, so he could attend the birth of his first child. His wife, Noor Abdalla, delivered their son on Monday in New York.
Khalil, who is being held at a remote Louisiana detention center, instead experienced part of the birth through a phone call.
Khalil’s legal team wrote to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement official overseeing his detention on Sunday and informed her that his wife had gone into labor in New York that morning, emails obtained by NPR show. They asked her to grant Khalil a two-week conditional release so he could be present for the birth.
“Mr. Khalil would be open to any combination of conditions that would allow furlough from ICE’s perspective, including a GPS ankle monitor and/or scheduled check-ins,” the lawyers wrote.
A half-hour later, Mellissa Harper, the director of ICE’s New Orleans Field Office, denied the request.
