By Tom Ozimek
Contributing Writer
Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian activist who was detained for more than three months earlier this year, has filed a claim seeking $20 million in damages from the Trump administration, alleging that he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, and publicly smeared as an anti-Semite as part of a politically motivated effort to silence his activism.
According to The Associated Press, the filing is a precursor to a potential federal lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows individuals to pursue damages for harm caused by federal officials acting unlawfully. Khalil told the outlet that he would accept, in lieu of monetary damages, an official apology and the abandonment of the administration’s policies that he alleges target pro-Palestinian speech.
Responding to questions about Khalil’s accusations, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Khalil of making himself an anti-Semite through his actions in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Israel.
“Mahmoud Khalil’s claim that DHS officials branded him as an antisemite and terrorized him and his family is absurd,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus. He ‘branded’ himself as antisemite through his own hateful behavior and rhetoric.”
McLaughlin added that receiving a visa or green card to live and study in the United States is a privilege and that the Trump administration acted “well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property.”
Meanwhile, Khalil’s legal battle over his deportation continues in federal court. On Wednesday, Khalil’s lawyers filed a motion in U.S. District Court in New Jersey seeking to block the Trump administration from deporting him on what he alleged is a retaliatory new immigration charge.
The motion, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and several legal groups, asks the court for a preliminary injunction prohibiting U.S. immigration authorities from detaining or removing Khalil based on a new charge accusing him of misrepresenting facts in his green card application.
Khalil’s lawyers argued in a memorandum in support of their motion that the new immigration charge was filed only after a federal judge blocked the government’s initial attempt to deport him under a rarely used “foreign policy” ground, which alleged that his pro-Palestinian activism threatened U.S. interests. The attorneys contend the new allegation is an unconstitutional effort to punish Khalil for his speech and legal challenge.
“The Trump administration’s baseless, after-the-fact charges against Mahmoud Khalil are nothing more than further retaliation for his outspoken advocacy for Palestinian human rights,” Amy Belsher, director of immigrants’ rights litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “These flimsy accusations only reveal the targeted nature of his arrest and the ongoing attempts to silence and remove him. It’s past time the government gave up its unlawful attacks on Mahmoud and his family.”
Khalil, 30, was a prominent spokesperson for student protesters at Columbia University who opposed Israel’s military operations in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas that killed about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. He was arrested in March by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York under an executive order issued by President Donald Trump that aimed to hold accountable individuals accused of engaging in pro-terrorist or anti-Semitic activities on college campuses.
Khalil was held for more than 100 days at a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, before being released on bail in June. He hasn’t been criminally charged.
His green card was canceled, and he was placed in deportation proceedings on two different legal grounds.
One of the grounds was under a section of U.S. law that allows the government to deport someone if the secretary of state deems their presence to have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States. A federal judge in June blocked the government from using that justification to detain Khalil, finding that his continued detention would cause irreparable harm to his career and chill his political speech.
Hours after that ruling, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) informed the court that Khalil was being detained solely on the second charge: alleged willful misrepresentation of material facts in his green card application, under legal provisions that say a person can be deported if they made false or misleading statements in their immigration paperwork.
Two former immigration judges filed declarations on July 9 criticizing the misrepresentation charge. One called the second charge “unusual” and suggested that it’s a pretext to keep Khalil detained and to remove him “at all costs.” Another said the charge was “not at all supported by the evidence and caselaw” and should be reversed on appeal.
In his latest motion, Khalil is seeking a court order to prohibit DHS from detaining or removing him based on the misrepresentation charge and to prevent immigration officials and courts from using that charge in any removal proceedings while his case proceeds.
Khalil’s case remains pending in both federal and immigration courts, with the Trump administration filing appeals in response to prior rulings in Khalil’s favor.
