Mahmoud Khalil has sued the Trump administration for $20 million after spending months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.
The pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student, 30, alleges in a lawsuit filed Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and ICE falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, and defamed him, according to the Associated Press.
Khalil, now reunited with his wife Noor Abdalla and 10-week-old son, told the AP that he wanted the Trump administration to “feel there is some sort of accountability” and that, if granted the money, Khalil pledged to share it with other activists targeted by the government.
In an emailed statement to the AP, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the DHS, called Khalil’s lawsuit “absurd” and accused him of “hateful behavior and rhetoric” directed at Jewish students. A spokesperson for the State Department maintained that the handling of Khalil’s case was lawful.
ICE arrested Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian, in his Manhattan apartment on March 8, reportedly under state department orders to revoke his green card. Khalil was released 104 days later, on June 20, after a court dismissed the government’s shaky evidence. After his arrest, Trump called Khalil a “terrorist sympathizer” in a Truth Social post. Then, in March, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Khalil was targeted by a law that removes those “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America.” Now, the Trump administration alleges he reported false information in his green card application, which Khalil denies.
The legality of his arrest was immediately called into question given that Khalil is a legal resident and the agents who arrested him did not provide a warrant. Khalil was sent to LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana.
The center’s location was “deliberately concealed from his family and attorneys,” the court filing alleges. He told the AP that he was denied ulcer medication while detained.
While he was detained, Khalil continued to garner attention for his public statements, including the letter he wrote to his son, who was born while Khalil was in the detention center.
