The Adam Friedland Show (Cumtown) - The Lost Episodes: MAHMOUD KHALIL

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

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Wayfair, every style, every home. Welcome back to the Lost Episode series, Adam Friedland Show. This next episode, we're really happy we can release it for various reasons we couldn't for a long time. And now we got the green light. My guest is Mahmood Khalil. Khalil, of course, was a grad student at Columbia who worked as a negotiator between the administration and the Palestine Solidarity Movement. And early last year, he was detained by ICE and held for over 100 days. His wife was American.

She was eight months pregnant, and he was a legal permanent resident. Despite his release, his court case and his fight against his deportation continues. And he continues to challenge the government's broader attacks on free speech. in court. I think it's a really interesting, important conversation. I really hope you guys like it. Season 3 out of Free Glad Show comes out in two weeks. Enjoy guys. I'll be in Denver, New York Comedy Town Hall, whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, Mahmoud Khalil. Hello. How are you? Good, good. Why do they put the mic pack on your pocket like that? I did actually.

Oh, you did. No, no, hide it. It's fine. Okay. People know that. No, I, no. Can we not start with an insult, that I'm insulting you? All right.

So, this is, like I said, I'm being set up. I'm a goofball, and this is, I had your team send a list of things that could be funny. And I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry. You need liars. You need liars. He loves plants, but he kills them all. That's hilarious.

I don't kill them all. Oh, so they're shitting on you. No, no, I think my... In one of the worst, you're a civil rights hero, and they're telling you, say that you kill all your plants? No, No, my wife, like, she's holding a grudge against me because I killed her orchid. Okay, so they talk to your wife about all the things that are bad about you.

Great. You're an old man in a 31-year-old's body. Haven't you been through enough? Why are they writing this? Is this a roast list? Wait, your team's idea. Listen, you have 30 lawyers? I mean, on one case, but. On one case?

So how many? I have like seven, six active cases now. It's a lot to keep track of, but at least 30 on the main case. 30, and then publicity, you have like 50. I mean. You got a book deal? Are you signed at an agency? Yeah, with Metropolitan, with Macmillan.

Macmillar? Macmillar? Macmillan. Macmillan. That was a good joke. That was a funny. Oh, that's a lot. Do you have an agency?

You should start, maybe acting a little bit. But I mean, no, I'm not. I already have enough now. You have as many lawyers as Justin Bieber right now, and publicity people. To me, like, I did nothing wrong. For going to college. Literally, like, nothing.

Every time I think about it, I was like, why do I need all these lawyers? I think we should now stop the goofing and no more laughing guys. No, anything else like? Oh, I mean these are atrocious. You guys need to just lie. You need to be like he's the one of two people that know how to flip and sing besides Benson Boone. Let's get into you.

Palestine has been a seminal issue of the last three years. What's happened to you in the last year? happened to you in the last year? So basically in March 2025 like about a year from now, the Secretary of State designated me as a foreign policy threat. Yeah. For what I don't know, like foreign policy. Foreign policy. Foreign policy threat and like to me that was you changed their mind or something. Doesn't look like it. You know, like we're still sending more and more weapons and money to Israel. But what is a foreign policy threat. Do you know, like, is it a, it's just like a statute from...

It's from the 52, actually, it was brought or it was used to prevent Jewish immigration into the country. So they want to prevent, you know, the communists from coming into the country. So they came up with this statue in 1952. It has never been used against, like, someone like me since ever, since 1952. It was mainly used to prevent people from coming in, not. to actually like prosecute people here in the country. But to be honest, it's just like to me it's all like, for me it's a movie this past year. Like why I'm in this situation?

I literally did, I consider myself they did nothing. And it's when I compare like, you know, my activism to the other kids at school or to the other students, I'm like, you know, I'm throwing them under the bus. You know, I'm, let's hear about these other terrible back kids. No, but I was literally on the very moderate side. like that they sent me to negotiate you know like we don't need you here like go negotiate so yeah so to tell

to tell your story for for those who don't know you're at columbia as a graduate student yeah um you lived in student housing i did i did i did live in student housing with your wife with my wife and uh pregnant wife we're expecting a child in in april i was detained in march um so i was literally for that I graduated. What day was your child born? Today actually, like on April 21st. So you went down to Louisiana to miss the birth and now you're here on the Adam Friedland show?

I think the kid, it's a first birthday though. It's usually people just standing around like a baby. He doesn't know anything, you know? Yeah, they don't know anything. Obviously campus activism was a hot topic, which is like, first of all, why the fuck they were acting like at UCLA in Colombia they invented kids protesting the most normal thing in the world I mean that's what you do especially at Columbia where since the 60s they they also occupied Hamilton Hall the same building

that the students recently occupied the 80s they did the same in the 70s they bombed academic buildings so I mean I'm not saying that like I'm just saying that this is I mean this is this is the the tradition of of especially at Columbia and and these students who were, I mean, most of them 17 to 19 years old, 17 to 20 years old. Yeah. They were very courageous. They refused to remain silent while they are seeing all these trustees happen on their

phones while Columbia University was gaslighting them about what they are talking about. And these students, they had three simple demands. Like the first one is to disclose Colombia's investments because Colombia has a large endowment, as a large endowment, over $14 billion. They are the largest real estate owner in the city of New York. And the second one is to divest any investments in weapon manufacturers and violating human rights. And the third one is to boycott Israeli academic institution.

They had a relationship with Tel Aviviris. That's one, but also they are opening sort of a set alight campus in Tel Aviv, Colombia's global center in Tel Aviv, where they have another one in Amman, like less than 70 miles away from that. So all these are political statements like to really legitimize Israel. And this is what the students said,

like me as a Palestinian, I pay Colombia's tuition, but I can't go to Israel. Israel would not allow me. You mentioned that you lived in Israel for a year. I'm not allowed to even visit. And my grandparents were born, And Tiberius. In Tiberius.

And they were there for generations. It was a place where actually it had a, Jerusalem in Tiberius, from what I understand, had an indigenous Jewish population, prior to Zionism. There was a place where Muslims and Jews lived together. My grandmother tells me about their Jewish neighbors. Like it wasn't that something, you know, that's out of the ordinary. No, it was like normal. Like she tells me, she speaks some Hebrew, like very, very, very basic.

basic to because they were working together mostly they were farmers like they're the Jewish population there and even the Arab population so there was that relationship they say it's a very spiritual place Tiberius I haven't been I mean all the stories I get are from my grandmother so in a simpler sense I hear you explaining just like an obvious thing like it's the most obvious thing in the world at a university an academic institution, they have, they're kids that want to make a kind of have a tangible effect on something that is going on. And it's something related to you being Palestinian, right?

No, absolutely. I mean, because there's something related to... Look, the student movement was composed of hundreds of thousands of students across the United States. Yeah. You know, like, with a Shabbat in the... There was Shabbat. I attended my first Seder. They should have toned it down a little bit.

It's a little bit much to do as Seder in the encampment. Just relax, okay? We're sorry. But also they wanted to target me because I'm Palestinian, that's fair. But also to chill the speech of others, like the ones who look what we did with this person. So if you speak about Palestine, we will do the same for you, no matter if you did no crime. Like now we are a year and one month after my arrest. They haven't brought any evidence that I committed any crime.

Zero. Is it the case that they're kind of bearing you in legal procedural red tape? So this is the main immigration case where they're trying, because the immigration system is fully controlled by the administration, like 100%. It is like kangaroo court in terms of what decisions they can make, how they make them, the rules, it's not a title of three or a federal court. So what they're trying to do is to tell the federal court you can't touch his case because it's under the immigration process

And this is why they brought me into them because a day before my arrest A legal case later showed against the administration that they themselves like DHS and the White House They admitted that they don't have any grounds to detain me except for this through determination So they looked into fraud they looked into everything they couldn't bring anything so they were like oh but there's the this statue from 1952. Let's try it on him. To contextualize it, you were functioning as a negotiator. One thing that's apparent about you from talking on Friday and right now is that you're

calm, right? But like protests could get kind of hot, right? And they select, is that why they selected you? Yeah, mostly just because I was literally like the one. At first like I was older than most of the people there. I already had experience in diplomacy. I worked for the British Embassy in Beirut. I already had 10 years of experience when I came,

of work experience when I came to Colombia. That's one. But the second thing is because, like, I can meet someone in the middle. Like, I'm not, you know, like, I, the students, of course, and the faculty, they trust me. They trust my judgment, but also that I'm not there just like, you know,

to talk. No, I want to get results. I can meet people in the middle. I'm usually calm. I'm very calm, like, more than I should be, maybe. Well, no, it seems like it's, I think what's necessary is that, like, understanding what, how you became calm. I mean, I think, like, you were born in Syria, is that correct?

Yeah. So I was born and raised in Syria in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Syria. Yeah. You were third generation? Third, second. So my parents were born in Syria, and then my grandparents were born in Palestine. So I was born and raised there. I stayed there until the age of 18 when the Syrian uprising started in 2011.

I was 16. I participated in that uprising in 2011. It's really cute. You did the five-minute protests? It's like even less because and that's why I tell people here like the risk of protesting in Syria was you are getting shot. You're not you getting deported. We're going to do a 30 second process. You just like get the film.

They film you and you upload it. But then the regime arrested two of two of my friends or the people who I was organizing with. So the second day I fled to Lebanon. Did your parents come with you? No, no, I was alone like actually it was on my 18th birthday that I. like a week after my 18th birthday that I fled to Lebanon because they had to do it like within you know like my friends were arrested on January 11 at night January 13 in the morning I was in Beirut and and there of course like in Beirut I did not speak any English back then I was supposed

to start studying aviation engineering at the university and in Syria so I couldn't do that and in Lebanon I had to literally do construction work for six, seven months until I, you know, I found a decent job that then they offered me a scholarship to go to school to learn English. I like this construction work angle for the PR people. I think, yeah, he's a master, you're, you know, just like our Lord and Savior old JC. No, no, I enjoyed it. Like I was, I like that. I was a painter and I enjoyed being like painting walls and going to houses and it's just like because at that point I did not want to add like more stress to my own my family who was still stuck in Syria couldn't move to because Lebanon compared to Syria is very expensive

like insanely expensive compared to Syria so like a hundred dollar in Syria can survive you for a couple of weeks in Lebanon two days so absolutely my family like So what's it like living in New York, though? I mean, I love it. But it's got to be like, you've got to be like, this is great. It's absolutely great. Because in Lebanon, I lived in Shatira camp, which is one of the more, you know, underprivileged communities, like Palestinian communities.

And also there was a massacre. And there was a massacre committed by Israel and their Lebanese allies back in Haiti. The philangeal. So it's you know like I went through all of that so to me what I'm now is just like another an extension of all the misery that I went through All my life and that's why you're calm I think I think I believe that this has contributed to to my calmness but also like I come from a family that Went through a lot like since before my my my birth like my my grandparents when they work a out of Tiberias, they lived in a tent for a number of years, and then they died in a mud house.

So my dad was born in a mud house. My parents were married in a mud house. My mom's brothers also were imprisoned by Israel for a number of years. So it's not that, you know, it's like my story is unique. It's just like an extension of that. But even like in 1870, France exiled my grand, my mom's grandparent from Algeria, from French Algeria to the Ottoman, Ottoman Palestine. So it's sort of friends in the family, unfortunately, all this like exile. So you paid your way through university in Lebanon?

I did. So I was basically working full-time. Was it like being 18 and just like an alone? I mean, it was, I loved it, you know, like, with family. And then, yeah, partying and going around, Beirut is the best city for parties. It's the Paris of the Middle East, they say. So I honestly like like that part. You have the beach?

Yep. Beach, mountain. That's beautiful. But, I mean, the first year was really tough because I was basically trying. Because in Lebanon, everyone speaks English or French. And, you know, I'm that guy who. So how good at English did you get? if it's like a, if people are multilingual, how did you meet your wife, I guess?

So when I was in Lebanon, I was working basically, I was running schools and refugee centers for Syrian refugees. And one of the programs we had is to bring international volunteers to teach English to refugee kids in Lebanon. So Noor, my wife, who's American born and raised in Flint, came in one of these trips to teach English. So we met at this program, basically, back in 2016. How did, did, how did you, how did you, like, how did you, how did you, how did you, how did you, how did you get fall in love? I don't know. I mean, we spent-

It seems like she was the one that was like, we're getting married. I mean, yeah, so. Yeah. We spent like a month, it was a group of 30 people, so mostly for, mostly Americans. Yeah. So we spent all that. time and at that time like I was running it was running the program so I did not have time really you know to yeah but then afterwards like we talked we met like a

few months after and I mean you started as friends and yeah like a few months and yeah we were like we were serious but then you know long distance for for a couple of years but I got a scholarship to Columbia in 2018 to do a short course an executive course at Columbia so I did that to be like a CEO or so it was yeah it was like something emerging leaders and nonprofit management something like that is your desire was to be like to work as a like in so my desire was most of the time like work in um international like affairs I would say in public service but particularly like to represent Palestine because I always like growing up when reading about Palestine, I felt that there is that vacuum of Palestinians.

Like to work at the UN potentially? Yeah, yeah, so I, before my arrest, I had a job offer at the UN, like to be a policy advisor with an organization. How does it feel like they've kind of let you guys down? I mean, they fucked themselves. They've let you guys down a lot. A lot, a lot. You're going to go to the place where the, like, I don't know.

I mean, again, like that was, I felt that this is a role I could play. You could try and do something from within. Exactly. Not necessarily from within. It's just, you know, we, the fight for Palestine requires every avenue. And that was an avenue that I felt I can contribute to. But also, like, more importantly, like, I wanted to be a voice for my people. I feel that, especially in the United States and following Edward Saeed's journey here,

because that was like the only example. I mean, we come from a very different way. like backgrounds you know like it would say it and me yeah but like I felt like you know there is so much need for for Americans and the people just like to hear Palestinians because we always hear others talk about Palestinians what they want what who they are but they don't we talked about this on the phone right and like I think in a tangible sense like the kids at Columbia wanted to do something that was tangible. I think Palestine has obviously been a seminal issue, especially for the younger

generation that has emerged only recently in the States. But does it feel sometimes like a little bit of that? A little bit, sometimes the advocacy could be disconnected from actual Palestinians that are actually dying. Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't say it's malicious or any of that. I think it's just like there isn't too many Palestinian voices here, but also. So to center Palestinians here, it's a bit tough because a lot of people here they only read the theory of resistance, the theory of what Palestinians, who Palestinians are. Like at Columbia, there were only like, I think, less than 10 students who came from Palestine, actually from Palestine.

So it was so difficult. And these students tend to be very risk-averse because they have so much to lose. I can imagine, yeah. I mean, I'm a living example of that. Compared to, you know, like other kids or other students in school who have some sort of privilege, they can get arrested or they can't risk get arrest. They can, you know, for them, it might be like Palestine is only like a few years, but to me it's like my life is Palestine. It's awesome. So the dynamic is a bit complicated when it comes to that.

But I don't think it's malicious. It's just like also everything happened so fast. Right. Like in the encampment happened about a year and a half after October 7. But also before the encampment like actually no less, sorry, six months. It was in April 2024, so yeah, six months. So like it was so fast. So everything happened so fast and you find these students being put on this national international spotlight in a second.

Like when the encampment happened and none of them is media trained. None of them like no, like what they care about is to actually get the university to divest, to get the university not to use their tuition fees to kill like people. They've only known Netanyahu as the prime minister, right? It's 17 years. Yeah. So their entire lives, like, you know, they've only known. I mean before him was Bennett who's more.

Yeah, I bet it. They've had some goofballs. Yeah, they've had some real wacky guys. But also, like, these students, they can't see the injustice and the hypocrisy, like, in daylight. Like, they are being, you know, they were advocating for the rights of Palestinians. Well, I think you could see the war now. Yeah. And they were seeing, like, the killing. But you see the politicians.

You see the university gaslighting them. Like, no, this is not happening. Or, like, it's, and to them was, that was shocking. that this level of hypocrisy and level of standards can happen in daylight. That's why they... I mean, they lost faith in the administration. No one wanted to actually talk to the Trump... to the Columbia administration.

So how did you become a negotiator? You know, I'm a bureaucrat, so like I come from... I come from, like, you know, a history of bureaucracy work. I mean, I worked for the British who's like the oldest. and the word. So I would just say like and you know just like email the administrators since since even before October 7 because anti-Palestinian racism is institutionalized at Columbia before October like when I first joined Columbia and in January 2023 I joined the Palestinian group there and we wanted to invite human

rights watch we want to invite BDS like just to talk about that's what you do in international affairs of school you know like you have speakers you bring experts but because it's about Palestine Colombia would put us in a very long process of approval of just like you know they don't want us to do that but you guys had a bureaucrat exactly so I was like you know I got it I I would email them I would fill the forms I would read I would read the policy manual all of that and they would go back to them and so I established this reputation of being communicative with with the administration and also being Palestinian

so that's that's also a part like and also just being you're just who the sense I get of who you are as a person which is just like not someone that is a hothead like you're kind of like someone that can maintain your cool I feel like you don't have to just explain any of this shit I think that it's just like you're you're Palestinian and there's a war in Palestine you're seeing people dying and there's protests on your campus you know like the the history part of the distraction here they they want to create that they want to distract us from what's really happening in Palestine right all

the atrocities from the US complicity and sending weapons and just like to care about you know what from the river to the sea means what to globalize the antifada means like these are slogans and slogans are not killing people bombs are killing people for me personally I just have to say, like, as a Jewish person, especially like watching Zoran's mayoral election, it was just they were being Islamophobic to him, and they were saying that they have to do it for the Jews.

And it was revolting to me to watch. Because, yeah, I mean, and it was done by this guy from, like, a political dynasty, right? It's not even Jewish. No, no, which is totally absurd. But there's a propaganda. And anti-semitism is real and is rising, but it's not because of the Palestinian movement. It's not because of these protests.

It's because of first the openization of anti-Semitism. It's because of the use of anti-Semitism as a way to go after. The definition of anti-Semitism doesn't hold any weight if you say that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism. So that's like the fact about like cheapening the fight of anti-Semitism, which is scary. Like when you have a state. that's insisting on using Judaism as a shield. Yeah, it has a man, again, it is the Star of David.

So, and they're seeing atrocities. And this is what I've been saying, like, again, here that's the only, that's the only deflection that they can have, because who wants to be an anti-Semite? No one wants to be an anti-Semite. And that's what they use as an attack, like, oh, you're an Semitic, you're a Semite. you're a Semitic because they're really weaponizing that and and this is what's cheapening the fight against anti-Semitism I don't I think that when I hear the narrative of the Palestinians this is something that dawned on me when I was younger

Like the narrative of you being in a different country Third second generation in a refugee camp The narrative you know learning what happened in Sabre and Shatila like about the, you know, the Nakhba. It's, correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels like you're unwanted people. And that's what Jews were for 1800 years. And it bothers me that, that, more than the anti-Semitism thing, it bothers me that it feels like there's an erasure of that,

of who we are, like, and that if anyone could understand what it's like to be a Palestinian, like to be people that are unwanted and just kicked out of their homes and then they go to a new place and they're not wanted there it should be Jewish people and I mean this is why our greatest allies are Jewish people no you don't have to say that no I mean I would say like you know we do we do have that and I'm not like you know we have we have Jewish voices for peace and then bend the arc and if not now who are like really it's feeling that you know like like being Jewish values that about social justice and what's happening.

Historically, yeah, I always thought that was cool because like I've said this before, but like my parents My dad and mom moved to Los Angeles because my parents lived in South Africa They went away to university. They came back. They got married and then my dad got called up to Angola to the Civil War And they were like you know what has a real coward. It's a regular. He's a Jane Fonda, you know, he's a real beatnik, you know? No, so they didn't want to raise their family in a fucked up place. But the white people, including family friends, a vast, like a large proportion of the people that joined the struggle and joined the ANC were Jewish people because we understood what prejudice is. I mean, I would say like this is what Zionism is about. Zionism is about erasing the other, erasing like the Palestinians, erasing their, like, the Palestinians, erasing their,

stories, their history, their connection to the land to create that such a colonial entity that's Israel. But historically, I mean, I wouldn't go, like, I wouldn't know it now, like about Zionism is. I mean, beyond that, it's just like, I don't know, we didn't have beef with Muslims. Like the, the reason after the Spanish, this is so boring, okay, but the after the Spanish Inquisition, the reason they went to the Middle East, they went to Moroco and to Palestine and there were. They were, they were. permitted in Muslim countries after the church. If you're looking at the body count, the church is crushing it.

I mean, they're like, they're world champs. I mean, like, I think it's like a little bit like, it's strange to me that, because another misunderstanding about the whole conflict is that this is something that's existed for thousands of years, it's not. Yeah, I mean, Muslims and Jews. Look, like, I mean, like, there was Palestine or the Levant area like Palestine, the bigger Syria. It was a place of refuge for so many people.

You had the Armenians who fled the massacres against them, settled in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. You had the Caucasians, the Greek. So it was a place of refuge. And my family, my mom's family, they found refuge. from Algeria and in Palestine. So it wasn't like something that's out of the ordinary that to receive Jewish refugees or to receive anyone. It's the fact that this group of people

they wanted to, they wanted exclusivity on the land, which then stirred all the problems. And before the Balfour Declaration, everyone was, I would say, oppressed under the Ottomans, whether they are Muslim. Hassan Pekir. No, right. Literally.

And has he apologized, okay? I want to talk about Louisiana. I grew up in the Southwest, right? I grew up with a lot of Latinos, right? And to me, when I was a kid, I learned about the Holocaust. And my first question for my parents was like, how do, how does an entire country become anti-Semitic all in one moment? What happened was it was invisible largely.

There were people that were taken and they would see. Jews get taken, but then life in Germany was, you'd go to the office the next day, you know. You'd have a Christmas party, you get a little too drunk. It's not invisible. I think it's people choose not to look at it. To me, I saw Los Angeles. I saw the Marines in Los Angeles, and then I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to the office next day. You know, my life is not really disrupted, right?

You found yourself in a position with, and growing up around a lot of Mexican people, a lot to, primarily Mexicans in the Southwest. There are people that strictly want to make more money for their families, you know? And people that come here to work too, you know, like that make our lives much easier. And people that are invisible too. They are the most vulnerable people in our society.

In Minneapolis, we saw two American citizens get shot. There was an outcry. We saw an entire American city under siege. I don't think the question is being asked about what's been happening to these people now for years. What was your experience like in detainment? I mean, just like on your point, like, now I just like I remember like Juan, who was like my bunkmate, who has been in the United States for over 24 years. Like he arrived here in 2001.

And it was like his second night and he was just like so shocked that he's in detention. And he tells me like he was, he's a father of two U.S. citizens. his daughters were nine and two I believe but also he tells me like oh I have a roofing company I paid last year over three hundred thousand dollars in taxes I was picked up from my from my workshop and to him like he felt that his tax paper papers like wear his way out because he felt he was doing everything right like he he was picked up from work he he employs like over 20 20 workers and that was the type of every single person in detention but

What really broke them was the fact that they are being so dehumanized On on the news being called all the names and for them they were like we didn't like we just wanted like what's good for our kids What's good what's good for our future and just to me like that was like shocking like to a lot to a lot of them like just like the fact fact that they're being dehumanized this way a lot of the people were picked up from their ice chickens or court hearings so they were literally doing that I think to find themselves in a place with over 70 men in one room sharing like one big room so cold you only get a thin blanket the food is so terrible that was what the room you're in exactly in Louisiana they don't know they they

They don't understand, like, I mean, they don't know their rights because they either, I mean, which was shocking to me, at least like I got some papers, like, what I'm being. But they had a bureaucrat. Yeah, so. No, no, but for them, like, they did not even get that paper. And I still remember, like, the man from Honduras who came to me and showed me a paper. I was like, damn, you're fucked. He was like, what's happening? I mean, through a translation.

He signed his deportation paper without knowing. It was in English? It was in English. So correct me if I'm wrong, but the impression I get is that they want to make life so intolerable for people. If you're in the state, primarily you're here legally, right? And so if you're not legal status, they deport you. So from what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, they're trying to make life so intolerable. for these people that they will self-deport.

They'll sign a piece of paper that says, I'm never coming back. So some of them, they don't have status. That doesn't mean they committed any crimes. They came through the borders. They've been here for so long. And because, you know, the U.S. immigration system is so not only complicated, like it's designed to exclude such people from the system.

So for them, you know, like not, just like not having to. Papers doesn't like really I mean the Hs is only 20 years old or ice it's only 20 years old like it's it's not Shat that like people would think like oh like what what we would do without ice like you know immigrants would be oh no like it's it's a new it's a new thing it's a new invention I and DHS and for so long Europe like they they they manage their immigration without ICE without looking people up locking people up in and and remote detention centers but What you said is exactly what is, is the fact that they make the conditions in such detention centers so unbearable so that you would want to leave as soon as possible. With everything, it's designed for that.

We've had a record number of people dying in detainment. Yeah, this year. Detention, yeah. I mean, this year was, I think, the highest since ever, and we're only three, four months into. Did you see anything like that? Like, like medical? I mean, I had another like fellow detainee with his leg amputated. And you can see that his leg is getting swollen.

He would go to the medical center. They would send him back and only after three weeks that they sent him to a hospital. After like, I don't know, I mean, it was so bad, but also he chose to just like. self-deport or just sign the deportation documents and what was the company that like it's a these are privately owned facilities these and I mean that was shocking shocking for me because again like I'm not I'm not innocent of being ignorant about the immigration system in this I wasn't like before before my detention I never thought about what ICE detention is I had no reason to

believe like to to to learn about it Well, I don't think most people know. Because I was a green card holder, everything is good. I was on track to get my U.S. citizenship in two years. Just have a life with your wife. So why would, you know, like, and maybe it's stupid of me. Like, I never thought that something is happening here. But the moment I stepped in into these detention centers, I was just shocked.

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So DJ Callie, do you think that's the most famous Palestinian? No. Jesus is the most famous Palestinian. Oh. I think I thought he was Jewish. I mean, that's the thing like... This changes everything. I don't think it's mutually exclusive. He was obsessed with his mother, you know? I'm obsessed with my mother.

Yeah, the same, dude. We're Jewish. Dude, we're Jewish. We're Jews, dude. Okay, the private prison aspect of it, like, I've heard reports that they make you buy water, that they make it, like, egregiously expensive to make phone calls. Like, how are they, how are these companies, like, benefiting?

So everything about, like, the detention was about, like, profit, basically. Yeah. You know, the phone call, I think it was 10 cents per minute. if it's domestic, about a dollar or something, if it's international, and most of the time it's international. Which Syrian prices, that's like a house. Oh, that's like a house. I don't know, yeah.

But also like with the commissary and, I mean, there were like few people who were before coming to, very, very few before coming to ICE detention. They were in federal detention or, like, prison or in state prison. And they would say, like, you know, take us back to the present, to the presence because it's much cheaper. Just like, this situation is much better than here. But again, like, it's, and, but I mean, they would do everything for profit. Like, if that means that they would starve you to death, they would do it because that would save them money.

And that's, like, what's about the food. Like, the food was terribly bad. And they would say that because, like, there was. the food like no I mean I mean there was room to improve the food as it is it's just like they don't want to the food was like literally beans different color every day so one day we would have red eye bean another day black bean white bean with some rice and and I mean depends on the day but like very very basic I wasn't a vegetarian meal because I tried the meat once and it was like

eating mud literally I had to throw up and go to the vegetarian meal, which means like you would never get full, so you're always hungry. So I lost like 15 pounds, which was not bad. OZembeck, probably your team's got you on OZembeck now that you're Hollywood. No, at least 15, so, yeah. I guess do you think about the... people that you were with there. And how do you connect the refugee story

with these individuals? You know? I mean, you know, like, being a refugee is just like looking for a better future for yourself and really, you know, being, whether persecuted or just like fleeing a bad situation. And, you know, I always think, like, I remember the moment I left,

I was detention when I got released and the only feeling I could have is really crying about the people I left behind because that was the first time I see the detention center from the outside and as I was walking there were reporters there and they look behind me and I could see the yard where we would have like the time out like there and I just got just like cry because like a minute before I was inside with them. And you have a name too. Like a lot of these people are nameless.

That's, I mean, the biggest, like, to me I had, I was very lucky, very privileged to have excellent lawyers on my team. Let's give it up for these guys. What about Durshawls? That hurt me because... You see someone like that. Because most of them, they don't even have one lawyer. Like, not even one lawyer.

And, you know, I entered detention thinking that my case was the most devastating case. You know, like, you know, my wife is pregnant. She's going to give birth in one or two months. And I'm not accused of any crime. I'm a green card holder. I was just being shipped from New York to Louisiana. But in a day, I was like, you know what? I'm lucky, like when I see all these fathers.

We had a person who his wife was also detained in a detention center about two hours away from like Gina Louise's where I was. And for nine months, they never met. They were like literally two hours apart, like in two different. But also they never had a direct phone call because you're not allowed to call. detention center or another facility. So I had to go back to my bureaucracy routes and dry to the facility. There was like some rule and I told them like you know like I want to have a direct phone call with my wife. I haven't done that and nine months and they approved it and they gave him like a bi-weekly one-hour call with with her so that was like my biggest achievement and

that's good. You negotiated so I'm thinking you're you're working you got a screenplay right now about Louisiana detention. It's a sitcom you're saying, right? You could say that. Did you learn any Spanish? Only the bad words. Oh yeah. Let's just bust out some. I wouldn't. Pandejo. I wouldn't. So, um, you don't cuss? Not huge. Have you ever called him little Marco? Just like, I feel like you're so like, uh, you, You're such a well-mannered individual. Yeah, I wouldn't go that low, to be honest. The only person...

How low he is? He's not that. He's like 5'2. No, the only person is Stephen Miller, because he's such a vicious. Because he's bald. Yeah. I'm bold, so...

No, but he's been bald since seventh grade, I heard. That is the Genesis of Evil, honestly. If I was bald seventh grade, I would have... I would have won at Stalingrad. I think it's more... Leningrad. It's beyond that,

It's just like, you know. No, but you think about it. You're 13, bald? I'm not saying have any sympathy for Stephen Miller, but I'm saying if you're bald, my friend went to his high school, you know about what happened? When he was defending,

he went to, he ran for student body president, he got booed by the whole school. Oh, this is, you need to know this tea on your, this is his main op, okay? So he, he was like a, it was like liberal Jewish, Santa Monica, California. Have you been an L.L.

once yeah all right well it was a bad experience but what was it I ended up in that neighborhood so we wanted to go it's always good for three days and you look around the room you're like everyone here's a moron no no just like we we wanted to go I was with Nourland we wanted to go to a to a restaurant to have lunch to have dinner and we found that Persian place and we went to like I had no reason not to go to that place and like we were while we were around the end of it, end of our dinner. I could see like a couple of tables

they're giving us like their to look. But then they just stood up and just like starting chanting, Am Israel, hi, Am Israel, like five minutes and they felt like so awkward. Those guys, they went into the encampment at UCLA. Yeah, so that was like my proud boys. My LA experience, no, the same at Columbia, like proud boys came to Colombia like.

For Israel. Yeah, yeah, like at the encampment. Like it's like at the time with the encampment. It's so confusing these days. You know, you would assume that they don't like Jews and then they, but they like the killing ones. Yeah, I don't know. Where are the seats at the Persian restaurant leopard skin

or like kind of an animal print? No. They like that. They like it. Yeah, it's just like you see. Was the whole parking lot of black BMWs? No, I mean, it's so disturbing to be honest. Because like some had to weigh,

had to wait for me outside holding an Israeli flag. I don't know. Like they had it on hand, I don't know. Because you were a nerd and you went to college? Yeah. This is such bullshit. What do you want? Like, you want to be an American citizen and you want to live here with your child and your wife?

Of course. That's why I came here, like, looking for stability. For the first time, I was, like, looking forward to having, like, the green card, the first permanent thing I ever had. And really, I was, you know, like, Right before my detention, like, and it's just so surreal when I think about it because I was recently graduated. I graduated graduating in December and we were waiting I have no idea I haven't put that it. No, no, no, no, I'm a bad like my undergraduate GPA is 2.4

Yeah, but you did it in computers. Yeah, computer science. I would have gotten zero point zero Yeah, but but I was literally like just waiting you know like preparing for the arrival of Dean, going with Noor to doctor's appointment, go trying strollers all across the city just to find that I... They're fucking expensive, right? They're so expensive. You got to go Craigslist, I think. No, no, we went to Jersey, like, to get one line over there.

Oh, you got to go Jersey. Yeah, but those might have lead paint or something. I don't know. So I wasn't that, you know, like just waiting to start my job first of April at the UN. And, like, everything is, I was in Mexico, like, doing Baby Moon. That was the first time I hear of that. What is Baby Moon? Apparently, it's, like, the last trip you do before, like, before giving birth to a child.

So she's, like, feels terrible on a plane? Yeah, so that was like when she was, like, seven months. She's like, yeah, this is the last trip we can have before. Yeah. Before giving birth. I was like, I'm sold. And she's like, I'm disgusting. So we went to Mexico and they came back.

I think like a week or so before my arrest. And then I was called up like, you know, Barnard doesn't want to negotiate with the students. Would you come to negotiate with Barnard? I was like, okay, I don't have anything to do. So I went and that was like the second part of it. And so as you said, you're one of 10 Palestinian students? Less maybe. I mean, there are like first, second generation Palestinian students, but I was like less than five maybe.

Palestinians who lived, you know, the exile or even under occupation. And so is that, you think, when you think, because they haven't presented any evidence, you haven't had the trial yet where they say how you jeopardize the foreign policy of America? They have not, because they have nothing. But like, when they targeted you, what do you consider to be the source of that? I mean, look, like if if you've seen it. I've seen the video of my arrest, I was so calm because I knew I did nothing wrong. I was like, there's no way, it's just a misunderstanding.

I'll be out in, you know, in an hour or two. But when I was in Federal Plaza, Federal 26, and I see the, that was the first time they give me the, called NTA, the notice to appear. And I see that the Secretary of State has determined that you are a foreign, something like What's his name? What's his name? Rubio? No.

What's his name, though? Who? Little, little. I mean. Come on. Just called in that. It's some fun when Trump did. But while I'm reading this, I hear the officer telling another, the White House is requesting an update.

I was like, whoa, whoa. What was happening? Trump was watching it. Yeah, like the White House is requesting an update. Whoa. And to me, like, literally at that point, like, what I did is just protesting and this is the most American thing you would do in this country like to protest that's like what I'm like you know that's it's the first rule yeah it's the first amendment right and they say the second is there to protect the ones so it's like you know the second one is really important to us too but the first one the first one is that's what I you know you're no that was shocked me because like there wasn't like any crime I'm come like I committed like it wasn't that because and

his determination, Rubio says that his actions, although lawful or otherwise lawful, possess a foreign policy threat. So, like, he sort of, like, conceded that all my actions were lawful. Like, how would they know? And, and again, like, it's, that's what we've been talking about, about, like, whether you agree with me or not, and I think you should agree with me. But whether or not, I mean, you know, genocide is bad. I'm on the fence right now, yeah. I'm a wait to see. That's what I was saying.

I'm going to see how this shakes out. But that's again, like if they can deport an anti-Zionist for his speech, they can deport his speech. They can deport the... They're all supposed to be the... That's what the Republican Party supposed to be about, like, you know, protecting free speech except for Palestine. And that's like, even if what they're saying is right about me, which is not. Like, it's protected speech. Assembly and speech.

And beyond that, you're Palestinian. And the protest is about a gym zone of palace. No, no, regardless of who I am, regardless of who I do. Again, once again, like, it's just the idea of targeting someone for a lawful speech. Yeah. Whether it's like some people feel uncomfortable, whatever that is, like, it's very lawful. Well, I, what made a big impression on me when I was a kid, shout out to you guys over there. Well, you weren't there.

It was some other guys. But like the Skokie, Illinois, the Supreme Court case, I always thought it was really cool that the American Nazi, no, I didn't think that that was cool. I thought the American, just for a background, the American Nazi party wanted to march in Skokie, which was a community with a lot of Holocaust survivors. And I always thought it was really cool

that there were like Jewish lawyers at the ACLU that were representing the American Nazi party at the Supreme Court because like, because in America, like in other countries, like in England you go to jail for Facebook, you know, like, there are like, we have higher ideals and principles. Like, this is supposed to be one.

And it was always kind of a progressive, kind of being a free speech warrior, was never considered a conservative topic. I think what happened was we in America we had Charlottesville and it freaked people out and I think that there was a revulsion. I think they kind of ceded it to the right. Oh God. We have a hell of a country. Do you like, I don't know, do you like the NBA?

That's pretty good. Have you seen movies? Yeah. Goodfellas, that's American. Yeah, I just finished the Sopranos just like last week. How amazing is it? Oh, love it. You know, Jersey.

Do you still want to be an American citizen? Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's... It kind of sucks for you, though. It's been crappy for you, no? It's been, I mean, it's been a hell battle. But that's why I'm fighting my case, you know, because I believe in that premise.

I'm not saying, like, America is perfect in any way, and then there needs to be so much things to do. But that's the promise, that's the American dream of coming here and, you know, realizing what you are. We just say that's the Chinese people, so they do a railroad. That's the thing when I was saying to Hill Hunt. That's like, you know, like that's why so many refugees

ended up in this country historically, you know. Well, historically, they didn't allow people trying to leave the Holocaust, you know. Yeah, I mean, that's one. Yeah, and then in 1952, they made the anti-Semitic law that you're being anti-Semitism about. That's like, it's not about, you know, me, Palestinian or my views. Like, if they want to come after, they could come after every one of you. It's, this is a civil rights.

case and meeting you and talking to you. It's a testament to you to I you're enjoying this. I would make everything about, I would make everything about my, my legal issues. You know there's a comedian Norm McDonald who got cancer and just died, no one knew? I would, it's the most masculine thing I could imagine. I would just be in Trader Joe's telling everyone my cancer,

this line is too long. I'm just saying you're like, in a, you're, you're, you're, You're being a sweet, lovely person in the face of all this is very, I don't know, it's a lovely thing to see in a shitty time. No, thank you. I mean, I'm not the story again. It's like the stories like about the people being killed using our tax dollars. And the fact that I'm being, you know, like our rights are being eroded right now. Yeah. And then I'm just being used as a pawn or an example.

Yeah, but you miss your kid's birth. Yeah, and nothing would make up for that. I don't think like winning my case or staying here. You FaceTimed? You FaceTime? No, no. Like it was a day after that. Like I, like we're able to talk to them on video.

But it was like very, very blurred. Like, you know, that ancient tablet, that everything is blurred. Tell us about meeting your son, like, when you're, You got back. So the first time I met him actually was in detention, like, behind a glass partition. And the government refused that we would meet contact visit, where we're allowed, like, to be in the same room and they can't hold him. Because he's a drug dealer.

He could have been smuggling. That's horrible. And that's like another level of the torture of these detention centers. because to me I was lucky that I was able to see him for so many people around me their family couldn't even visit because they were either undocumented or afraid of coming to hear or it's too far for them and too expensive but even to that level the government was terrible that they wouldn't allow me to have a contact visit with my son so we had to literally go to a court to force the government to allow us have a one-hour contact visit that

happened in a courtroom so the first time I hold Dean was in in a courtroom he was one month old his first visit was from New York to Louisiana like a five-hour flight and I still remember I had to go to the like to ask the officer to get me some wipes or alcohol just like so I don't oh yeah because he has a shot yeah exactly so and even like I did not I did not care to kiss him dare to kiss him like at that at that point because I was just like worried that because you know you're sharing that place with with so many people with so little hygiene so and that's why like I would never I always say like I would never nothing would ever make up for that and it would

never forgive them for stepping me from from this moment because it could have been like could have been avoided like in so many ways but to them the point is cruelty that's like the whole point of this administration of this like mass deportation campaign because they want to break me and to decide to leave because to them like from first week like if I decided to leave you can leave the country and just go. So they wanted to maintain that cruelty so that I would be broken. I think that's a good place to leave this. I think you got this bro. No I mean we got it. You got this. You got these like telling the truth as college people.

No, I'm so... I gotta get my dad's guy he works with is good, Madoff. We gotta get you some courage. Yeah, some like a, yeah, like a slip-in-fall kind of guy. Yeah, I know a personal injury guy from high school. No, thank you so much. Good a minute. Thank you. Thank you.

Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.

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