New York City's Zohran Mamdani's Pick For Chief Council

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Mahmoud Khalil is a Palestinian activist and Columbia University student facing potential deportation, whose legal defense is a large team of prominent civil rights lawyers and organizations, including Amy Greer (Dratel & Lewis), the ACLU, NYCLU, Center for Constitutional Rights, CLEAR (CUNY), and Alina Das (NYU), fighting his case in immigration and federal courts. 

He was detained by ICE in early 2025 for his role as a Gaza solidarity encampment negotiator, with the government alleging ties to foreign terrorist groups, while his lawyers argue his detention violates First Amendment rights and stems from his political speech. 

Ramzi Kassem, a former senior immigration policy adviser in the Biden administration who represented pro-Palestinian and anti-Gaza war activists detained under the Trump administration, will serve as Chief Counsel, guiding Zohran Mamdani's legal strategy. Zohran is now New York City's new mayor.  Ramzi was Zohran's top legal advisor.  

Ramzi Kassem has now been appointed by Zohran Mamdani is NYC's chief counsel.  Kassem, whose past legal work includes representing Ahmed al ..-Darbi in an al–Qaeda–related terrorism case, will assume his new position. They declare it's a new era.  Kassem previously served as lead counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, ..who in 2014 pleaded guilty before US military commission, to conspiracy to an al -Qaeda plot to bomb the French oil tanker MV Lindberg off the coast of Yemen.  Al-Qaeda was formed in 1988 by Osama bin Laden and other Arab veterans of the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan. Its primary goal is the establishment of a pan-Islamic caliphate and the elimination of Western, particularly U.S., influence in Muslim countries. The group declared a holy war (jihad) against the United States in the late 1990s.

He was arrested by ICE officers on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment in front of his wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant. Upon his arrest, authorities told him that his student visa had been canceled. But Khalil isn’t a visa holder. Khalil, who is a Syrian national of Palestinian descent, is a lawful permanent U.S. resident. In court documents, his lawyer, Amy Greer, said that authorities had revoked his green card.

The U.S. government officially designated al-Qaeda as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1999. 

Resource:

https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/what-you-need-to-know-about-mahmoud-khalils-legal-case

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