NY elected officials sending DHS Secretary Kristi Noem letter demanding Mahmoud Khalil's release

Josephine Stratman and Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Mar 11, 2025

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More than two dozen elected officials, including mayoral candidates Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani, are sending a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student detained by ICE, be released.

The letter, being sent Tuesday, also called on Columbia to stop “any and all” cooperation with immigration officials and for President Trump’s administration to remove ICE and DHS from campuses.

“The treatment of Mahmoud Khalil by the Department of Homeland Security is not only inhumane, it is a blatant violation of his legal rights,” the letter reads. “He has been separated illegally from his pregnant wife, who is a United States citizen, and detained without due process thousands of miles from home. We see these actions by the Trump administration for what they are — a flagrantly unconstitutional attempt to suppress free speech and incite fear.”

Several other 2025 mayoral candidates, including Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos and ex-Comptroller Scott Stringer, have separately spoken out against Khalil’s detention. They are not among those signing the letter.

“ICE has no right to detain a green card holder who has not been convicted of, or even charged with, any crime. This is profoundly un-American, and Khalil must be released,” Myrie wrote on social media on Monday.

Speaker Adams wrote on Monday that the incident “cannot be allowed to stand,” calling it “blatant authoritarianism.”

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Adams have both remained largely silent on the issue, with Adams saying on Tuesday he didn’t want to opine on the deportation because the federal government was in charge.

In total, 28 local officials signed Tuesday’s letter to Noem, including Councilwomen Alexa Aviles and Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.