Mahmoud Khalil files suit alleging a ‘public-private’ conspiracy to target Israel’s critics
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- Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia graduate student and pro-Palestinian organizer, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging a coordinated effort to punish and silence critics of Israel.
- The suit accuses Trump administration officials, conservative think tank leaders and online surveillance groups of a “public-private partnership” that could violate the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan Act.
- Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was arrested by ICE in 2025, jailed for 104 days and faces a fast-tracked deportation case that could reach the Supreme Court.
NEW YORK — Mahmoud Khalil is suing the federal government and several private groups, alleging they were part of a conspiracy to suppress criticism of Israel by doxing, jailing and attempting to deport supporters of the pro-Palestinian movement.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court Tuesday, alleges a coordinated campaign among senior officials of President Trump’s administration, leaders of the Heritage Foundation and two online surveillance groups, Canary Mission and Betar.
According to Khalil’s lawyers, that “public-private partnership” — first brought to light in a separate trial last year — may violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law that sought to restrict government coordination with vigilante groups.
Inquiries to the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar were not immediately returned on Tuesday.
A former graduate student at Columbia University, Khalil, 31, gained prominence as a spokesperson and leader for student activists protesting against Israel and its actions in Gaza.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested in March 2025 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in his campus apartment. He quickly became the face of the Trump administration crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
He then 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.
Khalil’s deportation case, a priority for the Trump administration, has moved with unusual speed through executive-branch-controlled immigration courts, and may soon wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He has forcefully denied that his role in pro-Palestinian protests amounts to 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.”
Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.
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