Khalil said in a declaration filed in Manhattan federal court that while he was held overnight at a detention center in New Jersey, “I did not hear anyone mention bedbugs.”

Federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student who played a major role in last year's protests at Columbia University, students said.

A Manhattan federal judge denied the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss Khalil's challenge to his arrest but allowed the case to move to New Jersey.

Mahmoud Khalil called himself a "political prisoner" in a new letter dictated from the Louisiana detention center where he remains held following his arrest.

Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York City,