This was supposed to be a season of joy for 28-year-old Noor Abdalla.
She and her husband, Mahmoud Khalil, are expecting their first child next month, and they were getting ready.
Planning a baby shower. Buying a stroller. Picking out tiny baby clothes.
Those preparations are all on hold now as Abdalla, a U.S. citizen born in the Midwest, fights for her husband, Khalil's release.
Khalil is a Columbia University graduate student and lawful permanent resident of the United States who was detained by Homeland Security, apparently for his prominent roles in protests at Columbia against Israel's war in Gaza.
Khalil's case has captured the nation's attention. Free speech advocates see it as a test of the First Amendment.
The Trump administration is arguing they have the right to deport Khalil and revoke his green card without charging him with a crime under a rarely used immigration provision. That provision gives the Secretary of State the power to deport someone if they decide their presence could have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
His lawyers say — if Khalil is deported — the government would be acting in retribution for protected political speech. They call it a dangerous precedent.
Khalil's legal fight is playing out in federal court in New York as Abdalla's days are filled with nonstop calls to and from lawyers, anxious friends and family — and, sometimes, her husband calling from the detention center in Louisiana where he is being held.
"It's been very overwhelming," she said. "It's like when I wake up in the morning, it's a lot of just go, go, go."
It's only at night that the reality of their circumstances hits her. The man she fell in love with when they both worked with Syrian refugees in Lebanon might not be home for their child's birth. Even before his detention, Abdalla already worried about all the ways he might miss their child's arrival, if he was traveling or if she delivered while visiting her family in the Midwest — but she never imagined this.
"He's on a green card. He is not doing anything wrong. Exercising your First Amendment rights is not illegal," she said. "I think what's so scary about this and what people need to realize, is the fact that you can kidnap someone basically from their home for going to a protest. That's terrifying."
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Some portions didn't air in the broadcast version.)
Leila Fadel: What drove Mahmoud to protest, and what was his role at Columbia?
Noor Abdalla: He grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp. He ended up being, I guess you can say, kind of a double refugee at that point. He was a Palestinian refugee in Syria and then when things started happening in Syria, he was a Palestinian and Syrian refugee in Lebanon.
So that's his life experience. He has been the oppressed person. He believes that, as an oppressed person, he doesn't only have a duty to liberate himself from the oppressor, but also to liberate the oppressors from their hatred and tyranny. I think that's something he firmly believes in because of his personal experiences, but also because he knows right from wrong.
When things started at Columbia, his main role was the lead negotiator [between student protesters and Columbia administrators.] I think the reason that he was chosen for that role was because of his personality and because of the way he is. He's calm. He knows how to stay calm in stressful situations, and everybody knew him as the guy who was not going to start yelling or anything like that.
Fadel: Were you or he concerned about his involvement in the protests, especially as it became an issue in Washington, D.C.?
Abdalla: I don't think we were ever really worried about it until, obviously, things started escalating, and then it did become a concern. Mahmoud probably sensed it was going to happen more than I did after Shai Davidai [an outspoken critic of the campus protests and a Columbia professor barred from campus last year over alleged harassment and intimidation of employees] posted about him on Twitter, mentioning him by name, with the video of the protest. It turned into a Twitter frenzy, with tweet after tweet, people tagging Marco Rubio and saying, "Deport him, he's an illegal," and all of that. Right after that happened, I think he was nervous but stayed calm about it. He would joke about it, saying, "Oh, they might deport me." I don't know if he was serious or just trying to make me feel better.
Fadel: What happened when he was arrested? Could you describe that night?
Abdalla: It's Ramadan, so we were coming back from an iftar dinner at a friend's house. Our building has two doors. The first door's unlocked. For the second door, you have to use a key. So he unlocked the door on the inside and we stepped into the building and one of the officers holds the door behind us as it's closing because he obviously is not able to get in on his own. He turns to Mahmoud, he's like, "Are you Mahmoud Khalil?" Mahmoud says yes. I think at that point, as soon as he said, "Are you Mahmoud Khalil?" we were both like, "What is happening?" And he says, "I'm with the police. You have to come with us." I think at that point, honestly my heart sank. I want to say Mahmoud tried to prepare me because he had a feeling, but I don't know if I ever took him seriously."
Fadel: In what way was he trying to prepare you?
Abdalla: Two days before, he told me, "Do you know your rights if ICE comes to your door?" And I brushed it off. I was like, "What are you saying? Don't say that." For me, it's like that's not going to happen, you know? But he was like, no, you need to know. And he went through what I should and shouldn't do. I'm sure you saw the email; he emailed Columbia a day before or maybe it was the night before basically saying, like, "I have a feeling that ICE is going to come. I need you guys to intervene."
Fadel: Do you think he knew?
Abdalla: I think he knew. Yeah.
Fadel: And so at this point, your heart is sinking and what is happening in front of you?
Abdalla: Well, first, [Mahmoud] asked him "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, I turned to the officer, I was like, "I'm not leaving him." And the officer goes, "I'll arrest you, too."
And so Mahmoud gives me the keys and he says "Go get my green card." And the agent looked very, very confused. He was on the phone, I'm assuming, with the supervisor. And he said into the phone "Oh, he has a green card." Whoever was on the phone with him said, "Bring him in anyways."
Fadel: Were you terrified?
Abdalla: I think that's probably the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to me. We didn't know where he was. He was detained on Saturday night. We didn't know where he was all day Sunday, and we didn't find out until Monday. There was speculation, like, they're probably taking him to Louisiana, but nobody actually confirmed it. I wasn't able to confirm his location until he called me on Monday.
Fadel: And the first time you spoke to him. What did he say to you? And what did you say to him?
Abdalla: I'm so glad I answered that number. My phone was flooded with texts and calls. So I answered and it was him. He's like, "Hi, how are you? How's the baby?"
And I'm like, don't act so normal, please. He knows that I'm an anxious person and even through all of that, he was trying to calm me down.
Fadel: How are you doing this? Are you preparing for the baby?
Abdalla: Even before all of this happened I would joke with him. I'm like, what if you're traveling or something or what if I was visiting my family and you weren't able to come for the birth? You know, That was so scary to me. For me to have to give birth by myself… And now we just don't really know if he is going to be there.
Fadel: Let's say tomorrow this is resolved and Mahmoud is released and this case is dropped. Do you think you two would feel safe just going back to living here, the lives that you were living?
Abdalla: I love this apartment. I love the place where we live. We always talk about how we wish we could stay forever. But I think, unfortunately, they kind of took away that sense of security and that sense of safety. And I don't know if that's something you can fix after what happened.
Fadel: Are you talking about the apartment or are you talking about the country?
Abdalla: I think both.
NPR reached out to Columbia University about Noor Abdalla's claim that no one at the school responded to her husband's email to intervene in what he suspected were plans by immigration agents to detain him. The university did not respond to NPR's requests for comment.
The radio version of this interview was produced by Taylor Haney and Phil Harrell.
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