Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student detained in March by immigration agents, responded for the first time to the charges against him and described the "irreparable harm" his arrest has had on him and his family.

"I have suffered—and continue to suffer—as a result of the government’s actions against me," he said in a declaration included in a letter his legal team filed on Thursday in support of his bid for a preliminary injunction in his federal case .

"The most immediate and visceral harms I have experienced directly relate to the birth of my son, Deen. 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," Khalil said. "I listened to her pain, trying to comfort h

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