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Khalil sues over conspiracy
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the Trump administration and private pro-Israel groups of conspiring to “terrorize” and jail him and other Palestinian activists under a civil rights suppression law known as the KKK Act.
The suit names presidential advisor Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and it alleges the Heritage Foundation developed a plan with groups such as Betar and Canary Mission to arrest, detain, and deport activists without citizenship who were Palestinian or supported Palestinian rights.
Khalil told reporters during a July 14 press conference in Foley Square, “You detained me, and I’m standing here. You tried to make me a warning, and instead you made me a plaintiff.”
The lawsuit comes as Khalil and his legal team prepare to petition the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appellate court reversed a lower court’s order that had released him from detention, and it says ICE moved to deport Khalil in March 2025 after his participation and leadership in on-campus pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University the previous year.
The Trump administration accused Khalil of promoting terrorism and supporting Hamas, the group responsible for attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the lawsuit described by amNewYork.
Public-private targeting claims
The AP, via Audacy, said Khalil’s suit alleges a coordinated campaign to dox, jail and ultimately deport student activists, and it describes the civil rights suit as naming the Heritage Foundation as the architect of what it calls an ongoing conspiracy to suppress criticism of Israel.
In the same AP account, Khalil’s lawyers argue the “public-private partnership” could violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, and the suit claims activists placed on online lists “were nearly automatically targeted by the Federal Defendants for arrest and removal.”
At a news conference in New York Tuesday, Khalil said the purpose of the filing was “exposing the network of organizations, particular actors and institutions that work together to criminalize solidarity with Palestine and to make an example of those who refuse to stay silent.”
The lawsuit also traces the alleged conspiracy to a blueprint from the Heritage Foundation entitled “Project Esther,” which the suit says called for the expulsion of noncitizens who joined protests against Israel, while Khalil denies that his criticism of Israel amounts to antisemitism.
In response to the lawsuit, an Abigail Jackson email to Audacy said the executive branch “has the lawful authority to take actions that will protect the public and to ensure the integrity of our immigration system.”
Deportation case heads to Supreme Court
Khalil’s deportation case is described as headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a judicial order to end the alleged conspiracy, according to Audacy’s account of the filing.
Audacy reported that Khalil was arrested in March 2025 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in his campus apartment, and that he 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.
The Guardian said Khalil’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, alleges that the Trump administration coordinated with Betar and Canary Mission in selecting “targets of the conspiracy,” and it quotes Khalil saying, “This case is about far more than what was done to me.”
The Guardian also reported that a White House spokesperson said, “Khalil obtained his visa by willfully and intentionally failing to accurately report information relevant to his background,” while a DHS spokesperson said the agency had “acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority with respect to Khalil.”
In the same Guardian account, Khalil’s attorneys said they would ask the supreme court to intervene, and the article notes that earlier this year a federal appeals court ruled it must proceed in immigration court even after Khalil was released from immigration detention last June.
