Mahmoud Khalil files $20 million suit over 3-month ICE detention

BROOKLYN (CN) — Accusing the U.S. government of false arrest and imprisonment, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil filed a $20 million lawsuit Monday over the 104-day immigration detention that prevented him from attending the birth of his first child.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil in the lobby of his apartment building on March 9, 2025. He was transferred to an ICE detention center in Louisiana and held for more than three months until a federal judge ruled his detention was unconstitutional and ordered his release.

“This was no ordinary arrest and detention subject to regularized administrative process or reasoned deliberation. Instead, with a target in sight who could not be charged with any actual crime, federal officials sought to weaponize the immigration process in an unprecedented manner to ensure his arrest, detention and deportation in order to send an in terrorem message to all noncitizens that advocacy in support of Palestinian rights will be punished with maximal state repression,” Khalil writes in the 32-page complaint.

Khalil, 31, filed Monday’s suit after ICE denied the administrative claim he filed last July.

The activist also sued top U.S. officials last Tuesday in Manhattan, claiming White House Deputy Chief of Policy Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio collaborated with conservative and Zionist groups like the Heritage Foundation, Betar and the Canary Mission to target noncitizen pro-Palestinian activists on U.S. campuses for arrest and deportation.

Khalil led campus protests for Palestinian rights at Columbia University, his alma mater, and was a lead negotiator with the university during an April 2024 encampment that clashed with the New York City Police Department. He is a Syrian-born permanent U.S. resident with a green card and his wife, Noor Abdalla, is a U.S. citizen.

The Trump administration has sought to deport Khalil through a rarely used provision of immigration law that allows for a noncitizen to be deported if their presence in the U.S. compromises foreign policy. He was the first of several international students to be arrested by federal immigration officials for speaking out about Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, which is aided by billions of U.S. dollars, resulting in his arrest and extended detention.

“The U.S. officials’ plan to weaponize immigration laws and abuse the legal process was open and notorious, as was their documented collaboration with anti-Palestinian hate groups to achieve their joint objective of repressing Mr. Khalil’s speech,” he writes.

He says he was subjected to “sham-like” immigration proceedings that deprived him of his liberty as he missed his son’s birth and the first two months of his newborn’s life, while U.S. officials branded him a terrorist sympathizer and an antisemite.

In a statement alongside the lawsuit, Khalil — who’s represented by attorney Samah Sisay of the Center for Constitutional Rights — called for accountability measures in response to political retaliation and abuse of power.

“Not only is the U.S. government using taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, but they are weaponizing the immigration and legal systems to target those who speak out against them,” Khalil said. “I’m holding the U.S. government accountable not just for myself, but for everyone they try to silence through intimidation, detention or deportation.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return a request for comment.

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