00:00Thank you, everyone.
00:03I think we speak on behalf of so many people across this country, across so many people,
00:14welcoming Mahmoud home to be here and to be reunited with his wife and his newborn.
00:21Mahmoud Khalil was imprisoned for 104 days by this administration, by the Trump administration,
00:32with no grounds for legal reasons.
00:37Because Mahmoud Khalil is an advocate for Palestinian human rights,
00:43he has been accused facelessly of horrific allegations simply because the Trump administration
00:50and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech.
00:56This was a form, his detention by ICE being taken from his home,
01:01as well as other advocates, Ms. Ozturk in Boston, Massachusetts, ripped off of the street.
01:07Being taken is wrong. It is illegal.
01:11It is an affront to every American, and we will not allow and we will continue to resist
01:20the politicization and the continued political persecution that ICE is engaged in.
01:27And so we welcome Mahmoud home.
01:29We will continue to support the work of CCR, the ACL organizations, the lawyers and organizers
01:40on the ground who have supported his family.
01:43And I have to, of course, thank my staff in office, Maureen Octor, who has done so much
01:49incredible work as well in ensuring that Mahmoud gets the justice and dignity that he deserves.
01:56And so right now, right now, we hope that and we wish for Mahmoud and his family to be able
02:02to enjoy some peace after an incredibly difficult 104 days.
02:07But we also have a path ahead of us.
02:10This is not over, and we will have to continue to support this case.
02:15And I also want to thank, I know we have representatives from Senator Schumer's office and others,
02:19because everybody agrees, everyone agrees, that the persecution based on political speech
02:25is wrong, and it is a violation of all of our First Amendment rights, not just law moves.
02:31Thank you very much.
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