Mahmoud Khalil

During the CNN interview, Khalil said, "It’s disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while the Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel."

“From the moment that I was detained, I knew that I would eventually prevail,” he said. “What I simply did is protesting a genocide.”

A DHS spokesperson called Khalil's claim "absurd" and said the Trump administration acted well within its legal authority to detain Khalil.

A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the administration's request that Badar Khan Suri be returned to immigration detention.

Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University graduate and permanent US resident, was the first student pro-Palestinian protest leader to be detained by the Trump administration.

Khalil, who was greeted by American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez upon his arrival in Newark, said that he would continue his activism even after his time in prison.

Mahmoud Khalil says he is being punished for his political speech in violation of the US Constitution's First Amendment.

The 30-year-old grad student, a legal permanent resident, has been detained in Jena, Louisiana, since March 9, a day after agents from DHS took him into custody at his Columbia-owned apartment.

“We will unmask these terrorists who attack Jews with impunity. Those who cosplay Hamas on campus will be hit hard by the full weight of the law," the spokesperson said.

The raids — at homes in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Canton — were not tied to immigration issues or on-campus demonstrations against Israel that have taken place over the last year and a half.