SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Like Senator Schumer, the Israeli government strongly denies that its campaign against Hamas and Gaza amounts to genocide. South Africa is arguing in the International Court of Justice that it does. That case has yet to be decided, and it's an accusation that rang across the campus of Columbia University last year. Mahmoud Khalil was a prominent part of those protests as a student there, and he was taken by immigration agents last Sunday. His case is now the subject of activism and a legal fight.
The government claims it has the right to revoke Khalil's legal status and deport him. His lawyers contend he's being targeted for protected political speech. Instead of spending her final month of pregnancy preparing for her first baby, Khalil's wife, Noor Abdalla, is fighting for her husband's return, and my colleague, Morning Edition host Leila Fadel, has conducted Noor Abdalla's first broadcast interview. Leila joins us now. Thank you for being with us.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Thanks for having me, Scott.
SIMON: Tell us about the scene. Noor Abdalla was with her husband when he was detained last weekend.
FADEL: That's right, she was. And she said, they were coming home from dinner, and as they unlocked the door of their apartment building, a man held it open behind them and asked her husband, are you Mahmoud Khalil? And I'll just play you a bit of what she says happened next.
NOOR ABDALLA: We were both like, what is happening? You know. And he says, I'm with the police. You have to come with us. I think at that point, like, honestly, like, my heart sank. Like, I want to say Mahmoud tried to prepare me. Like, two days before, he told me like, do you know your rights if ICE comes to your door? And I, like, brushed it off. I was like, what are you saying? Like, that's not going to happen, you know? But he was like, no, like, you need to know.
FADEL: And so at this point, your heart is sinking. And what is happening in front of you?
ABDALLA: So Mahmoud is trying to ask the officer. Well, first, he asked him like, who are you with? He said, Department of Homeland Security. And then he asked him, can I see a warrant? The officer said he has one. He's like, it's on my phone, but never really showed it to us. And then Mahmoud was holding the keys that he had just used to open our apartment, and the officer was like, give the keys to your wife, basically. And I turned to the officer. I was like, I'm not leaving him. And the officer goes, I'll arrest you, too.
SIMON: But she's a U.S. citizen, right?
FADEL: Yeah. I mean, that's part of the reason she didn't take Mahmoud's warnings that he might be deported seriously. She was born here. He's a lawful permanent resident - he has a green card. And she says, as most Americans do, she believed they had the right to say whatever they wanted, and he was using that right to speak up about the treatment of his own people. He's Palestinian. And now, Noor is in this position she never could have imagined facing the possibility that she's going to have this baby while her husband is detained in Louisiana or possibly deported.
SIMON: The government is accusing him of supporting Hamas, which could amount to a violation of U.S. law. What does she say about those accusations?
FADEL: Well, she says they've provided no evidence of that accusation because there isn't evidence. He's also never been charged with an actual crime. That would be a crime if you provided support to Hamas. Here's more of what Noor said.
ABDALLA: I just want to be clear that the smears against Mahmoud are exactly that. They're smears. He has and always will stand up for what's right. And the way that he was taken from his family was not right.
FADEL: The government's actually arguing they can take his green card under a rarely used immigration provision, not because of a crime. I also asked her if her husband were allowed to return home tomorrow, let's say, would she feel safe in the U.S. after what's happened. And here's what she said.
ABDALLA: I love this apartment, and I love the place that we live. But I think, unfortunately, they kind of - they took away that sense of security and that sense of safety, at least for me.
FADEL: And I wasn't sure if she'd lost her sense of safety in the apartment or the country. So I asked, and she said both.
SIMON: NPR's Leila Fadel. Thanks so much for being with us.
FADEL: Thanks for having me, Scott.
SIMON: You can hear more of that interview with Noor Abdalla Monday on Morning Edition. You can ask your smart speaker to play NPR or your member station by name.
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