Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who the Trump administration is seeking to deport for his pro-Palestine activism, has spoken to reporters from his home, Al Jazeera reports.

Khalil told the Reuters news agency that he “did not choose to be in this position” and it has “had a great impact on my life”. But he said he will use his new-found profile to raise public awareness.

“I now have some sort of a platform that I will, of course, use to shed light on the atrocities that Israel is committing against Palestinians and how the US government, how Columbia and other US universities are also complicit in these crimes, because this is what actually matters,” he said.

“What’s happening is that there is a genocide now happening in Palestine, being funded by the US and invested in by Columbia.”