Officials and far-right groups coordinated arrests and deportation efforts, said former Columbia University student.
On Tuesday, Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sued the administration of President Donald Trump, alleging it conspired with far-right groups to intimidate and detain pro-Palestinian activists in the United States.
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He accused senior federal officials and groups such as The Heritage Foundation of conspiring to single out him and other noncitizen Palestinians “for their arrest, detention and deportation as punishment for their support of the rights of the Palestinian people.”
The lawsuit details collaboration between those far-right organizations and Stephen Miller, a Trump adviser; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin; and his predecessor, Kristi Noem, among others.
“The pattern consisted of selection, public defamation, visa revocation, arrest and transfer to ICE detention centers, followed by immigration proceedings described as sham proceedings to secure deportations,” Khalil said in the lawsuit.
Mahmoud Khalil just filed a lawsuit under a civil rights suppression law known as the KKK Act that accuses the state department of conspiring with the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar to punish him for his activism. pic.twitter.com/GhVOKuWPAN
— Max Parrott (@mwparrott) July 14, 2026
In addition to Khalil, at least eight other people have been targeted in the ICE operation, in which Canary Mission and Betar have publicly confirmed “their participation.”
On June 20, Khalil was released after spending more than 100 days at a detention center in Louisiana. He filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was enacted to combat domestic terrorism.
He argues that his case amounts to a form of bill of attainder, a punishment imposed by the government without judicial guarantees, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.
Relying on lower court rulings recognizing that legal principle, Khalil is seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial, as well as a judgment reflecting the defendants’ conduct.
A few days earlier, Khalil filed a separate US$20 million damages claim against the Trump administration, accusing it of unlawful detention and politically motivated persecution because of his role in university protests against the war in Gaza.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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