In a Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, Mahmoud Khalil remained confined as his spouse gave delivery to their son on Monday—over 1,000 miles away from the hospital room the place he would have been standing. The separation wasn’t resulting from logistical impossibility however a denied request for momentary launch, highlighting what some specialists describe as a sample of utilizing household separation as leverage in opposition to particular communities.

“This was a purposeful resolution by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son endure,” Dr. Noor Abdalla stated in a press release the day she gave delivery. “My son and I shouldn’t be navigating his first days on earth with out Mahmoud.”

Khalil, a Columbia College graduate pupil and member of Columbia College Apartheid Divest, was arrested on March eighth following his participation in campus protests in opposition to the battle in Gaza. His subsequent placement in ICE custody made his deportment case essentially the most distinguished within the new Trump administration. However advocates say that preserving Khalil from the delivery of his son provides acquainted, and merciless, parts from the president’s first time period.

Although Khalil’s case remains to be unfolding, his state of affairs echoes a historical past of household separation insurance policies that created a significant scandal within the first Trump administration, and seems to have blended with the President’s observe report of hostility towards Muslims, in accordance with specialists. Trump’s “zero tolerance” border coverage enforced household separations on the Mexican border in 2018, a yr after the newly put in President imposed a “Muslim ban,” a collection of insurance policies and government orders stopping households from seven predominantly Muslim nations from, amongst different issues, reuniting on American soil.

“ Household separation particularly is a really merciless coverage device that the Trump administration has relied on in each of his administrations,” says Yasmine Taeb, a human rights lawyer and progressive strategist who labored to undo the 2017 journey bans. “ Within the case of Mahmoud Khalil, there is a cause he was despatched to a detention heart infamous for abuse hundreds of miles away from his help system, from his spouse, and now his new child child.”

She pointed to different distinguished circumstances: Rumeysa Öztürk, a Turkish nationwide and Fulbright scholar pursuing her Ph.D. at Tufts College, was arrested by plainclothes ICE brokers on March 25, 2025, close to her house in Somerville, Massachusetts. Her detention adopted the revocation of her pupil visa resulting from her half in pro-Palestinian activism, particularly co-authoring an op-ed in Tufts’ pupil newspaper, in accordance with the U.S. State Division. Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green-card holder and pupil at Columbia College, was detained by ICE on April 14, 2025, throughout his naturalization interview in Colchester, Vermont. Mahdawi, who had organized pro-Palestinian protests on campus, grew to become a authorized everlasting resident of the U.S. in 2015.

“ The truth that Mahmoud, Mohsen, Rumeysa, and different college students have been focused merely for advocating for Palestinian rights ought to alarm and scare all of us,” Taeb stated.

The Trump Administration has repeatedly equated pro-Palestinian activism with anti-semitism—an equation challenged by the participation of Jewish college students and activists amongst these protesting Israel’s conduct within the Gaza battle. The battle was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas assault on Israel that resulted in 1,200 deaths and the kidnapping of greater than 200 hostages; Israel’s retaliatory strikes have claimed greater than 50,000 lives, a majority of them civilian, in accordance with the figures from Hamas-controlled Palestinian well being authorities referred to as dependable by the U.S. and U.N.

Muslims within the U.S. are cautious not solely of being solid as scapegoats, however of what can include it. Within the months following the September 11 assaults, tons of of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian males have been detained, some in what the Division of Justice later described as “unduly harsh” situations. Many households had no details about their family members’ whereabouts for weeks or months, worsened by communication blackouts that prevented contact through cellphone, mail or visiting.

Past the political dimensions, household separation inflicts profound psychological hurt, in accordance with psychological well being professionals.

“To be saved out of your new child little one not by selection however by systemic limitations is a novel sort of heartbreak,” says Muna Egeh, a supervised intern psychotherapist for Ruh Care, a web-based remedy service centered on Muslim purchasers. “For Mahmoud Khalil, this isn’t nearly immigration coverage; it’s about lacking a sacred, once-in-a-lifetime second. The emotional toll of such separation can depart lasting wounds, not just for the father or mother however for the kid whose first days start with out their father’s presence.”

In Khalil’s case, immigration authorities had discretion to grant momentary humanitarian launch—a apply often employed for circumstances like household births or deaths—however selected to not train.

“ICE’s cruelty is boundless,” stated Baher Azmy, Authorized Director of the Heart of Constitutional Rights and legal professional for Khalil. “Its small-minded refusal to grant Mahmoud and Noor essentially the most fundamental human gesture, to take care of one another on this pivotal life second, is an extension of their vindictive and arbitrary resolution to arrest and try to deport him. The humanity of Mahmoud and his household will, ultimately, be what all of us bear in mind.”