Anti-Israel migrant Mahmoud Khalil accused the Trump administration of illegally targeting him for deportation in a $20 million lawsuit.
Khalil is accused by the administration of leading a violent anti-Israel protest when he was a student at Columbia University and violating the terms of his immigration visa. The case has become a proxy battle between the opponents of the mass deportations ordered by President Donald Trump and his supporters.
‘Khalil’s claim that DHS officials branded him as an anti-Semite and terrorized him and his family is absurd. It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus.’
“Mr. Khalil is seeking $20 million, which he would use to help others similarly targeted by the Trump administration and Columbia University,” reads a press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights. “He would accept, in lieu of payment, an official apology and abandonment of the administration’s unconstitutional policy.”
The CCR said the lawsuit was only the beginning.
“The claim is a precursor to a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, which he will bring under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a 1946 federal statute that allows individuals to sue the U.S. government for damages for civil law violations,” the statement reads.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for Homeland Security, responded with her own fiery statement.
“Mahmoud Khalil’s claim that DHS officials branded him as an anti-Semite and terrorized him and his family is absurd. It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus. He ‘branded’ himself as anti-Semite through his own hateful behavior and rhetoric,” McLaughlin said.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America,” she added. “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.”
Khalil’s defenders have accused the government of viewpoint discrimination in violation of his free speech rights, but others point out that people on visas don’t have the same rights as citizens in the U.S.
In a statement with the lawsuit announcement, Khalil claimed that he missed the birth of his first child because he had been detained by the Trump administration.
“This is the first step towards accountability. Nothing can restore the 104 days stolen from me. The trauma, the separation from my wife, the birth of my first child that I was forced to miss,” he wrote. “But let’s be clear, the same government that targeted me for speaking out is using taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
After winning his freedom in one court case, Khalil almost immediately returned to a protest against Israel.
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