NEW YORK — One day ahead of a court hearing for Mahmoud Khalil -- the activist who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the campus of Columbia University, despite possessing a green card -- his wife and attorney both released statements shedding more light on Khalil's detainment and the days leading up to it.
Khalil's wife, who is eight months pregnant, issued a statement speaking of the outpouring of love she has received and the urgent need for him to be home in time for their baby's birth.
In it, she said that Khalil "begged" Columbia University for legal support one day before his arrest, explaining that he was fearful that ICE might target him.
Khalil allegedly sent an email to the university urging them to intervene, his wife said.
"I haven't been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support and I urge you to intervene," he reportedly said in his email.
His wife claimed that the university never responded.
ABC News reached out to Columbia for comment and has not independently reviewed the reported emails.
Khalil's wife also said in her statement that a "doxxing" campaign began targeting her husband about six days ago and anti-Palestinian groups were also spreading "false claims" about him.
She recalled the moment she was also threatened with arrest when she refused to leave her husband with the agents, claiming that the couple was never shown a warrant.
"I was born and raised in the Midwest. My parents came here from Syria, carrying their stories of the oppressive regime there that made life unlivable. They believed living in the US would bring a sense of safety and stability. But here I am, 40 years after my parents immigrated here, and just weeks before I'm due to give birth to our first child, and I feel more unsafe and unstable than I have in my entire life," her statement said.
The Trump administration said it detained Khalil, who was a leader of the encampment protests on Columbia's campus, alleging he was a supporter of Hamas.
Baher Azmy, one of the lawyers representing Khalil, called his client's alleged alignment with Hamas "false and preposterous."
According to a joint letter filed in court and obtained by ABC News, the government and Khalil's attorneys conferred on Monday but were unable to agree on how to proceed. Khalil's side asked the court to first decide a pending motion to compel the government to return him to New York; the government indicated that it intends to move to dismiss or transfer the case for improper venue and is asking the court to address that first.
"For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby. I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world. Please release Mahmoud Now," the statement from Khalil's wife concluded.
Attorney Amy E. Greer said she spoke with Khalil on Tuesday and that he is "healthy and his spirits are undaunted by his predicament."
"He also greatly appreciates, and, typically for him, is moved by the extraordinarily broad and steadfast support he has received from a variety of communities that understand what is at stake," she said.
Greer also hinted that some of the administration's comments about Khalil, including President Donald Trump's social media posts, may be used by his legal team to argue for his release.
"The remarks by government officials, including the President, on social media only confirm the purpose – and illegality – of Mahmoud's detention. He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment. While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so. The government's objective is as transparent as it is unlawful, and our role as Mahmoud's lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail," Greer said.
The court has scheduled a hearing on the habeas petition on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.
Khalil's team will be asking the court to order the government to return him to New York to while the legal battle plays out. Khalil is currently being held in Louisiana -- a move that Greer claimed is a "blatantly improper but familiar tactic designed to frustrate the New York federal court's jurisdiction."