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)
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