Weeks after being launched from immigration detention, Mahmoud Khalil, a key negotiator and spokesperson throughout Columbia College’s pro-Palestinian campus protests, has filed an administrative grievance towards the Trump administration looking for $20 million in damages.
Khalil, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for greater than three months because the Trump administration pushed for his deportation, alleges false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional misery and different alleged wrongdoings.
The grievance, a precursor to a federal lawsuit, was filed beneath the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Columbia College graduate scholar Mahmoud Khalil arrives at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport a day after being launched from immigration custody, in Newark, New Jersey, June 21, 2025.
Angelina Katsanis/Reuters
Based on the Heart for Constitutional Rights, the group representing Khalil, the Columbia graduate would use the cash to “assist others equally focused by the Trump administration and Columbia College.”
In a press launch, the group stated: “He would settle for, in lieu of fee, an official apology and abandonment of the administration’s unconstitutional coverage.”
Khalil, 30, helped lead and negotiate on behalf of the pro-Palestinian encampments that unfold at Columbia in the course of the spring of 2024, amid the Israel-Hamas struggle.
Khalil, a inexperienced card holder married to a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE brokers in his New York residence constructing in March — the primary high-profile pro-Palestinian activist to be detained by ICE in the course of the administration of President Donald Trump, who had vowed to “crush” the campus protests, calling them hotbeds of antisemitism.
Khalil was transferred to an ICE facility in Louisiana, whereas the Trump administration pressed in courtroom for his deportation.
The Trump administration stated Khalil was detained for his purported assist of Hamas — a declare his authorized workforce has rejected and for which the administration supplied no proof.
In courtroom proceedings earlier this yr, Secretary of State Marco Rubio — citing a hardly ever used provision of the legislation — decided Khalil must be deported as a result of his continued presence within the nation would pose a danger to U.S. overseas coverage.
An immigration decide in Louisiana initially discovered Khalil deportable, however a federal decide in New Jersey later issued an order barring the Trump administration from deporting or persevering with to detain Khalil on that foundation.
Khalil was launched from custody on June 20, however the Trump administration is continuous to hunt his deportation.
Protestors rally in assist of Mahmoud Khalil exterior of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, throughout a listening to concerning Khalil’s arrest, in New York Metropolis, Mar. 12, 2025.
Charly Triballeau/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Khalil’s grievance additionally accuses the State Division, the Division of Homeland Safety and ICE of conducting a “retaliatory arrest” towards Khalil over his constitutionally protected speech.
“Officers on the highest ranges of the US authorities publicly lashed out at Mr. Khalil on social media, falsely labeling him a terrorist sympathizer and an anti-semite — derogatory prices designed to destroy Mr. Khalil’s status, put him in bodily hazard and trigger excessive emotional misery,” the grievance acknowledged.
In an announcement to ABC Information, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated the Trump administration acted inside its authorized and constitutional authority to detain Khalil.
“Mahmoud Khalil’s declare that DHS officers branded him as an antisemite and terrorized him and his household is absurd,” McLaughlin stated within the assertion. “It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish college students on campus. He ‘branded’ himself as antisemite by means of his personal hateful habits and rhetoric. It’s a privilege to be granted a visa or inexperienced card to reside and examine in the US of America.”
