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Mahmoud Khalil filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Trump administration officials and several pro-Israel groups, accusing them of conspiring to target him and others as punishment for their support of Palestinian rights.
The former Columbia University graduate student became the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine speech after he was detained last year. A permanent US resident, Khalil is also fighting in court against the government’s effort to deport him.
The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Khalil, alleges that the Trump administration coordinated with Betar and Canary Mission, two pro-Israel online surveillance groups, in selecting “targets of the conspiracy”.
“This case is about far more than what was done to me. It’s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence, and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation,” Khalil said at a press conference on Tuesday announcing the lawsuit.
“It’s about exposing the network of organizations, political actors, and institutions that work together to criminalize solidarity with Palestine and to make an example of those who refuse to stay silent.”
Betar US publicly claimed credit for Khalil’s arrest, and the Guardian reported last year that the group had said it had submitted “thousands of names” to the administration for similar treatment. More information about the government’s reliance on the groups emerged last year during a trial surrounding the government’s campaign against pro-Palestinian scholars.
Khalil’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, names several top Trump officials, including White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, secretary of state Marco Rubio and former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, as defendants, as well as the conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar.
The suit alleges the Heritage Foundation and two of its leaders led the formulation of “Project Esther”, an effort the lawsuit claims “served as the blueprint” for what became a “public-private partnership” working to defeat the growing movement for Palestinian rights.
The complaint alleges government officials worked “hand-in-hand” with the groups “to deprive the selected individuals of their fundamental rights and to broadcast the chilling message that Palestinians and their supporters would be subject to state repression solely because of their identities and constitutionally-protected political viewpoints”.
Project Esther, it claims, “was a document that described the plan to identify and target pro-Palestinian, non-citizen students and scholars, who would then be arrested and deported by the federal defendant participants in the conspiracy”.
The lawsuit is being brought under the the Ku Klux Klan Act of ۱۸۷۱, originally passed to combat violent vigilantism on the part of the Klan.
The Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar US did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A White House spokesperson said in a statement that “Khalil obtained his visa by willfully and intentionally failing to accurately report information relevant to his background. Those who lie to the government to obtain entry into the United States will face justice.”
Federal immigration authorities arrested Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, in March ۲۰۲۵, over his advocacy for Palestinian rights. He was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, where he was held for ۱۰۴ days, during which he missed the birth of his child. He is married to a US citizen.
The Trump administration initially argued that Khalil could be deported because his views posed a threat to US foreign policy, with Rubio saying at the time that Khalil’s presence in the US would have “adverse foreign policy consequences”.
Federal officials later also alleged that Khalil “misrepresented” information on his green-card application, a charge his lawyers vehemently deny.
His arrest and detention drew widespread condemnation from civil-liberties and free-speech groups, and a number of high-profile voices have spoken out on his behalf. At the Tuesday press conference, speakers included actors Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector.
Although Khalil was released from immigration detention last June, the government has continued its effort to deport him. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court struck a blow to his case when it ruled it must proceed in immigration court.
Khalil’s attorneys have said they will ask the supreme court to intervene.
Last year, in the trial over the Trump administration’s policy against pro-Palestine students and scholars, details were revealed about how the Canary Mission and Betar US had been involved in compiling “deportation lists” they sent to US government officials.
Peter Hatch, a senior official within ICE’s homeland security investigations (HSI) division, testified that the agency assembled a team dedicated to investigating student protesters, and that the group compiled more than ۱۰۰ reports based on a list of ۵,۰۰۰ individuals identified on the Canary Mission website.
“The direction was to look at the website,” Hatch said. “That we should look at the individuals named in the Canary Mission website.”
