Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted controversial anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, his spouse and their younger son for dinner at Gracie Mansion on Sunday for the holy month of Ramadan.
“Final evening, as we marked the one 12 months anniversary of his detention, Rama and I had been honored to welcome Mahmoud, Noor, and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to interrupt our quick collectively,” Mamdani wrote in a Monday Instagram submit.
The mayor included a photograph of the celebration, exhibiting his spouse, Rama Duwaji, holding a plate of meals whereas standing subsequent to a seated Khalil, who was having fun with his meal.
Instagram / nycmayor
Khalil, a Syrian-born activist and former Columbia College grad scholar, was arrested by ICE early final 12 months, and faces deportation after the Trump administration accused him of committing fraud on his inexperienced card software.
The Trump administration, which claims Khalil is a Hamas supporter, is utilizing a not often deployed statute that permits for noncitizens to be deported if their beliefs can pose a risk to US international coverage pursuits.
“For Mahmoud Khalil, this previous 12 months has been marked by profound hardship—and by profound braveness,” Mamdani wrote within the Monday social media submit.
“And but, even within the face of that cruelty, there has additionally been magnificence. New Yorkers elevating their voices in solidarity. A metropolis refusing to look away. Mahmoud gained his freedom, and a father was lastly reunited along with his baby,” the mayor continued.
“Mahmoud is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York Metropolis,” Hizzoner declared.
Mamdani has been a vocal defender of Khalil, who spent three months in a Louisiana federal lockup earlier than a three-judge panel in New Jersey dominated in June that he ought to have been allowed to work by means of the immigration course of.
“I see this assault on him as half of a bigger assault on the liberty of speech that’s particularly pronounced in relation to using that speech to face up for coverage to human rights,” the mayor stated at an unrelated press convention in January.
