NEW YORK – A Columbia graduate facing deportation over his pro-Palestinian activism on campus has outlined the “irreparable harm” caused by his continued detention as a federal judge weighs his release.

Mahmoud Khalil said in court filings unsealed Thursday that the “most immediate and visceral harms” he’s faced in his months detained in Louisiana relate to missing out on the birth of his first child in April.

“Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone,” the 30-year-old legal U.S. resident wrote. “When I heard my son’s first cries, I buried my face in my arms so no one would see me weep.”

He also cited potentially “career-ending” harms from the ordeal, noting that

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