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Eleven months after<\/span> unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested<\/a> Mahmoud Khalil from his home in Morningside Heights, he met with his congressional representative,\u00a0Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., for the first time.<\/p>\n The February meeting was scheduled as Espaillat, a fifth-term incumbent, was trying to improve his relationship with Khalil while a challenger against him <\/strong>gained steam. Darializa Avila Chevalier, an organizer from the Columbia University student encampments and a friend of Khalil\u2019s, was at the time considered a long-shot challenger for the 13th Congressional District seat. But she was on her way to outraising Espaillat that quarter, and outside groups<\/a> that anticipated a tough race for the incumbent had already started pouring money to bolster his campaign.<\/p>\n Espaillat now faces an unexpectedly heated battle to keep his House seat in New York\u2019s primary election on Tuesday. Avila Chevalier is campaigning on criticizing Espaillat\u2019s close ties to the pro-Israel lobby and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee \u2014 whose super PAC gave $650,000<\/a> to a group backing Espaillat last month \u2014 and what she says was his reticence to go after ICE when the Trump administration first began targeting pro-Palestine students.<\/p>\n Outside groups have poured millions of dollars into the race \u2014 most of it, a reported<\/a> almost $7 million, in support of Espaillat. Nearly $2 million has come in support of Avila Chevalier, most of it from the new pro-Palestine super PAC<\/a> American Priorities and Justice Democrats<\/a> PAC.\u00a0<\/p>\n The race has aggravated an already strained relationship between progressive New York Democrats and an emboldened movement to their left<\/a>, pitting the overwhelmingly popular democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani against leaders once considered progressive stalwarts and now finding themselves lumped in with the establishment. Mamdani has bucked the preferences of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries \u2014 poised to become House speaker if the Democrats take the House in November \u2014 and retiring Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez<\/a>, who endorsed Mamdani early in his mayoral primary campaign and helped guide progressive ideas into New York\u2019s mainstream for more than 30 years in Congress. Espaillat, sworn in to the House in 2017, is the longest-serving incumbent Democrat in New York facing a serious challenger on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Avila Chevalier has pointed to Khalil\u2019s detention as a key inspiration for her decision to run. On the campaign trail, she has slammed Espaillat for what she frames as a lacking response to the activist\u2019s detention<\/a> and targeting<\/a> by the Trump administration<\/a> for the better part of a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMahmoud\u2019s case is really emblematic of a lot of what\u2019s wrong with our system,\u201d she told The Intercept. She pointed to Espaillat\u2019s refusal to meet with Khalil\u2019s wife, Noor Abdalla, as a continuation of his failure to address suppression of speech on Palestine in his district happening at Columbia<\/a> and on the campuses<\/a> of the City University of New York. \u201cThe fact that it was happening to a Palestinian man advocating for an end to the genocide of his people really highlights how all of this converges.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent debates, Espaillat has responded to barbs from Avila Chevalier over his handling of the Khalil case by congratulating her for her work to assist his family and citing his meeting with Khalil and his attorneys in February. That month, when another Columbia student was detained<\/a> on campus by ICE, Espaillat said<\/a> the school needed to beef up its protections for students and described the Trump administration\u2019s actions as \u201clawless,\u201d calling on them to stop immediately<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Espaillat\u2019s campaign did not provide comment for this story.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to a member of his legal team present at the February meeting, the goal for Khalil was to use the meeting to allow the former organizer of the pro-Palestine encampment at Columbia University to vent his frustration that Espaillat had ignored multiple pleas to meet with Abdalla. A slew of progressive members from other districts, including Vel\u00e1zquez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., had launched efforts to free Khalil and support family in the immediate aftermath of the arrest. Several visited<\/a> him in detention in Louisiana. But when Khalil\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen one of Espaillat\u2019s constituents was kidnapped from his home by Trump\u2019s ICE, he failed to take any action to protect or stand up for Mahmoud Khalil and his safety,\u201d said Amira Hassan, political director for PAL PAC, another pro-Palestine political action committee<\/a> backing Avila Chevalier. PAL PAC is affiliated with the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, which has supported Khalil since his arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did not meet with Mr. Mahmoud Khalil or his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, until after he was released from ICE detention,\u201d Hassan said. \u201cWhy 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\u2019s genocide in Gaza?\u201d<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez, Espaillat\u2019s retiring<\/span> colleague, was one of 14 House Democrats who signed a letter<\/a> to former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem three days after Khalil\u2019s arrest demanding his immediate release. She was joined by Tlaib; Ilhan Omar D-Minn.; Summer Lee, D-Pa.; and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. Another letter<\/a> the same day included Vel\u00e1zquez and more than two dozen other New York state and city politicians, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, then-New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and State Assembly Member Claire Valdez.\u00a0<\/p>\n Espaillat wasn\u2019t among them.<\/p>\n But Vel\u00e1zquez has since sided with Espaillat in an effort to hold onto power in key New York congressional races. She was upset with Mamdani for endorsing Valdez, another democratic socialist, for the 7th Congressional District seat Vel\u00e1zquez is vacating over Reynoso, her handpicked successor<\/a>. <\/p>\n The mayor further angered Vel\u00e1zquez and Espaillat when he endorsed Avila Chevalier, after he had reportedly promised<\/a> Espaillat he would endorse him after the congressman backed the mayor in the general mayoral election. Espaillat had at first backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo but switched his support to Mamdani after he won the Democratic mayoral primary last summer.<\/p>\n Espaillat has said Avila Chevalier\u2019s campaign has misrepresented<\/a> his record on ICE by saying he cooperated with the agency and voted to fund it. His campaign has touted his work to help immigrants build political power in New York and fight the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on immigrant communities. He has conducted oversight visits at ICE facilities and supported detainees<\/a> who held a hunger strike<\/a> to protest inhumane conditions<\/a> at a New Jersey detention center.<\/p>\n After a December visit to an ICE facility at Federal Plaza in New York with Rep. Dan Goldman \u2014 who is facing his own powerful challenger from the left in Brad Lander \u2014 Espaillat said President Donald Trump was creating a humanitarian crisis. \u201cThe White House\u2019s unhinged expectations are forcing DHS officials to cut corners,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cThis is not how America should enforce its laws.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n