Hyderabad, April 22 -- Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, detained in the U.S. and facing deportation, was not allowed to attend the birth of his first child, his wife Noor Abdalla said in a statement.

Abdalla gave birth alone on Monday, April 21, in New York, describing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's refusal to grant Khalil temporary release as a "purposeful decision" to make her family suffer.

"Mahmoud remains unjustly detained in an ICE detention center over 1,000 miles away from his firstborn child. My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud's support for Palestini...