Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student who emerged as a leading figure in anti-Israel campus demonstrations, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration and several private organizations of working together to suppress pro-Palestinian activists through doxing, detention, and attempted deportation.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, names senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, the Heritage Foundation, and the online organizations Canary Mission and Betar as participants in what Khalil alleges was a coordinated effort to target him because of his activism.

According to the complaint, Khalil’s attorneys argue that this alleged “public-private partnership” violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era federal law designed to prevent government officials from conspiring with private vigilante groups to deprive individuals of their civil rights. The attorneys contend that evidence of such coordination first surfaced during unrelated litigation last year.

Khalil, 31, is a former graduate student at Columbia University who became one of the most visible leaders and spokesmen for student protests opposing Israel and its military campaign in Gaza.

A lawful permanent resident of the United States who is married to an American citizen, Khalil was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March 2025 at his apartment on Columbia’s campus. His detention quickly became one of the most prominent examples of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

He remained in an immigration detention facility in Louisiana for 104 days, during which he missed the birth of his first child, before a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release.

Khalil’s deportation proceedings, which have been a priority for the Trump administration, have advanced rapidly through the immigration court system, which is part of the executive branch. The case could ultimately be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Khalil has repeatedly rejected accusations that his involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations constitutes 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.”

{Matzav.com}