Khalil is demanding $20 million for alleged political targeting as DHS seeks to deport him on immigration fraud charges.
Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian activist who was detained for more than three months earlier this year, has filed a claim seeking $20 million in damages from the Trump administration, alleging that he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, and publicly smeared as an anti-Semite as part of a politically motivated effort to silence his activism.
According to The Associated Press, the filing is a precursor to a potential federal lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows individuals to pursue damages for harm caused by federal officials acting unlawfully. Khalil told the outlet that he would accept, in lieu of monetary damages, an official apology and the abandonment of the administration’s policies that he alleges target pro-Palestinian speech.
Responding to questions about Khalil’s accusations, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Khalil of making himself an anti-Semite through his actions in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Israel.
“Mahmoud Khalil’s claim that DHS officials branded him as an antisemite and terrorized him and his family is absurd,” McLaughlin told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus. He ‘branded’ himself as antisemite through his own hateful behavior and rhetoric.”
McLaughlin added that receiving a visa or green card to live and study in the United States is a privilege and that the Trump administration acted “well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property.”
Meanwhile, Khalil’s legal battle over his deportation continues in federal court. On July 9, Khalil’s lawyers filed a motion in U.S. District Court in New Jersey seeking to block the Trump administration from deporting him on what he alleged is a retaliatory new immigration charge.
The motion, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and several legal groups, asks the court for a preliminary injunction prohibiting U.S. immigration authorities from detaining or removing Khalil based on a new charge accusing him of misrepresenting facts in his green card application.
By Tom Ozimek
