Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who became the face of the Trump administration's crackdown on Palestinian rights demonstrators, filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges senior Trump administration officials, pro-Israel group the Heritage Foundation and online surveillance groups Canary Mission and Betar conspired against him.
Mahmoud Khalil is suing the federal government and several private groups, alleging they were part of a conspiracy to suppress criticism of Israel by doxing, jailing and attempting to deport supporters of the pro-Palestinian movement.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court Tuesday, alleges a coordinated campaign among senior officials of President Donald Trump's administration, leaders of the Heritage Foundation and two online surveillance groups, Canary Mission and Betar.
According to Khalil’s lawyers, that “public-private partnership” – first brought to light in a separate trial last year – may violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law that sought to restrict government coordination with vigilante groups.
Inquiries to the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar were not immediately returned on Tuesday.
A former graduate student at Columbia University, Khalil, 31, gained prominence as a spokesperson and leader for student activists protesting against Israel and its actions in Gaza.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is married to a US citizen, was arrested in March 2025 by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in his campus apartment. He quickly became the face of the Trump administration crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
He then spent 104 days in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child, before a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release.
Khalil's deportation case, a priority for the Trump administration, has moved with unusual speed through executive-branch-controlled immigration courts and may soon wind up before the US Supreme Court.
He has forcefully denied that his role in pro-Palestinian protests amounts to antisemitism.
“My beliefs are not wanting my tax money or tuition going toward investments in weapons manufacturers for a genocide,” he previously told The Associated Press. “It’s as simple as that.”
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
