New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat met Mahmoud Khalil for the first time in February—about 11 months after Khalil was arrested by ICE from his home in Morningside Heights—after Khalil had already been detained in Louisiana for three months and released. Khalil’s
Eleven months after unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil from his home in Morningside Heights, he finally sat down with his congressional representative, Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y.
The meeting in February came as Espaillat. a fifth-term incumbent. was trying to repair his relationship with Khalil while his bid for the 13th Congressional District seat faced an increasingly fierce challenge. Darializa Avila Chevalier—an organizer from the Columbia University student encampments and a friend of Khalil’s—was initially seen as a long shot. But she was on track to outraise Espaillat that quarter. and outside groups had begun pouring money into the race to back his opponent.
Now, Tuesday’s New York primary has become something sharper than a typical contest for an incumbent seat. Avila Chevalier has campaigned by attacking Espaillat’s ties to the pro-Israel lobby and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. noting that a super PAC affiliated with AIPAC-backed interests gave $650. 000 to a group supporting Espaillat last month. She has also centered Khalil’s detention. arguing Espaillat was reluctant to confront ICE when the Trump administration first began targeting pro-Palestine students.
Outside spending has underscored how much is at stake. Nearly $7 million—reported almost $7 million—has gone toward Espaillat. About $2 million has gone toward Avila Chevalier, most of it from the pro-Palestine super PAC American Priorities and Justice Democrats PAC.
The race has landed inside an already fractured political moment on the left in New York. Mayor Zohran Mamdani. a democratic socialist who remains hugely popular. has bucked the preferences of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. who is poised to become House speaker if Democrats take the House in November. Retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. once a progressive stalwart guiding progressive ideas into New York’s mainstream for more than 30 years. endorsed Mamdani early in his mayoral primary campaign.
Espaillat, sworn into the House in 2017, is now the longest-serving incumbent Democrat in New York facing a serious challenger.
For Avila Chevalier, Khalil’s case is not just another campaign issue. She has pointed to his detention as the reason she decided to run. On the campaign trail. she has slammed Espaillat for what she describes as his inadequate response to Khalil’s detention and what she characterizes as targeting by the Trump administration for much of a year.
“Mahmoud’s case is really emblematic of a lot of what’s wrong with our system. ” Avila Chevalier told The Intercept. She said Espaillat’s failure to meet with Khalil’s wife. Noor Abdalla. continued what she argues was his lack of action around suppression of speech about Palestine in his district—at Columbia and on the campuses of the City University of New York. She called the fact that Khalil. a Palestinian man advocating for an end to the genocide of his people. was targeted as evidence of how the different parts of the fight are converging.
Espaillat, in recent debates, has responded to barbs from Avila Chevalier about his handling of the Khalil case by congratulating her for her work to assist his family and by pointing to the meeting he held with Khalil and his attorneys in February.
The timing is part of what has sharpened the dispute. That month. when another Columbia student was detained on campus by ICE. Espaillat said the school needed to beef up protections for students and described the Trump administration’s actions as “lawless. ” calling on the administration to stop immediately.
His campaign did not provide comment for this story.
The February meeting, though, has become the focal point for those arguing Espaillat waited too long.
A member of his legal team who was present at the February meeting said the goal was for Khalil—who had ignored multiple pleas for Espaillat to meet with Abdalla. according to legal and advocacy efforts—to vent his frustration. Several progressive members from other districts, including Velázquez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., launched efforts to free Khalil and support his family in the immediate aftermath of the arrest. Several visited him in detention in Louisiana.
But when Khalil’s legal and advocacy team asked Espaillat to meet with Abdalla, they never heard back, according to two people with knowledge of the events who spoke to The Intercept.
Amira Hassan. political director for PAL PAC. another pro-Palestine political action committee backing Avila Chevalier. said the delay amounted to abandonment. “When one of Espaillat’s constituents was kidnapped from his home by Trump’s ICE. he failed to take any action to protect or stand up for Mahmoud Khalil and his safety. ” Hassan said.
Hassan added, “He did not meet with Mr. Mahmoud Khalil or his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, until after he was released from ICE detention. Why was it that he chose to abandon his constituents?. Was it because he was more invested in serving the interests of his AIPAC donors who spearheaded the campaigns attacking students like Mahmoud Kahlil who were protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza?”.
The timeline matters here because Khalil’s detention had already run its course by the time Espaillat met him. Khalil was arrested and later moved secretly to a detention facility in Louisiana. where he was held for three months before being released from ICE custody. During that time, he missed the birth of his son.
Velázquez, who is retiring, had been among those publicly pressing the federal government. Three days after Khalil’s arrest. she signed a letter to former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem demanding his immediate release. She was joined by Tlaib; Ilhan Omar D-Minn.; Summer Lee, D-Pa.; and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
A second letter the same day included Velázquez and more than two dozen other New York state and city politicians. including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, then-New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and State Assembly Member Claire Valdez. Espaillat was not among the signers.
Hassan’s argument and Avila Chevalier’s framing also intersect with the broader political fight between Mamdani and progressive figures once seen as close to the Democratic Party’s institutional wing. Velázquez has since sided with Espaillat in an effort to hold onto power in key New York congressional races.
Velázquez was upset with Mamdani for endorsing Valdez. another democratic socialist. for the 7th Congressional District seat that Velázquez is vacating over Reynoso. her handpicked successor. The mayor further angered both Mamdani and Espaillat when he endorsed Avila Chevalier after he reportedly promised Espaillat he would endorse him if the congressman backed the mayor in the general mayoral election.
Espaillat had initially backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo but switched his support to Mamdani after he won the Democratic mayoral primary last summer.
Espaillat. for his part. argues that Avila Chevalier’s campaign has misrepresented his record on ICE by claiming he cooperated with the agency and voted to fund it. Espaillat’s campaign has touted his work to help immigrants build political power in New York and fight the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrant communities.
He has also conducted oversight visits at ICE facilities and supported detainees who held a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions at a New Jersey detention center. In a December visit to an ICE facility at Federal Plaza in New York, he traveled with Rep. Dan Goldman, who is also facing a powerful challenger from the left—Brad Lander.
Speaking around that visit, Espaillat said President Donald Trump was creating a humanitarian crisis, arguing that “The White House’s unhinged expectations are forcing DHS officials to cut corners,” and calling it “not how America should enforce its laws.”
Avila Chevalier has called to abolish ICE. Espaillat, by contrast, has said ICE should be “dismantled,” and he voted against funding the agency in January. He previously co-sponsored a bill in 2018 to dissolve the agency and transfer its “critical functions” to other agencies. even as he has voted with most Democrats to fund ICE in appropriations bills over his time in Congress.
At the time of Khalil’s arrest, Espaillat said that he expected Trump’s Department of Justice “to work within the confines of the law and that due process is guaranteed to him and his family.” During the February meeting, Espaillat offered to do whatever he could to help Khalil and his family.
But by that point—after Khalil had already been secretly moved to a detention facility in Louisiana and later released from ICE custody after three months—there was limited action Espaillat’s office could take aside from pressing the Trump administration to drop the charges. According to one person present at the meeting, no help for Khalil materialized after the offer.
Since then, Abdalla has appeared in an ad for Avila Chevalier.
The primary will also include Oscar Romero, chief information officer of the NYC Civic Engagement Commission, and Theo Chino-Tavarez, a socialist and computer engineer.
Fundraising has already turned into an argument of momentum. Espaillat is the top fundraiser, with $2.6 million so far. Avila Chevalier has raised just over $1.1 million. Her haul slowed after an first quarter that was described as eye-popping—when she became the only primary challenger that quarter to outraise an incumbent in New York City.
Avila Chevalier said the stakes go beyond the single seat. “This election is much bigger than this primary. it is much bigger than this seat. it is much bigger than this political moment. ” she said. “This campaign needs to be a vehicle to engage people in their own politics. in their own government. and if we build this coalition right. people will be able to find their political home as a result.”.
Mahmoud Khalil Adriano Espaillat Darializa Avila Chevalier ICE Noor Abdalla 13th Congressional District New York primary pro-Palestine students Zohran Mamdani AIPAC super PAC American Priorities super PAC