Freed from ICE detention, Mahmoud Khalil files $20 million claim against
Trump administration
[July 11, 2025]
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ
NEW YORK (AP) — On a recent afternoon, Mahmoud Khalil sat in his
Manhattan apartment, cradling his 10-week-old son as he thought back to
the pre-dawn hours spent pacing a frigid immigration jail in Louisiana,
awaiting news of the child’s birth in New York.
For a moment, the outspoken Palestinian activist found himself
uncharacteristically speechless.
“I cannot describe the pain of that night,” Khalil said finally, gazing
down as the baby, Deen, cooed in his arms. “This is something I will
never forgive.”
Now, weeks after regaining his freedom, Khalil is seeking restitution.
On Thursday, his lawyers filed a claim for $20 million in damages
against the Trump administration, alleging Khalil was falsely
imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the
government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus
protests.
The filing — a precursor to a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act
— names the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement and the State Department.
It comes as the deportation case against Khalil, a 30-year-old recent
graduate student at Columbia University, continues to wind its way
through the immigration court system.
The goal, Khalil said, is to send a message that he won't be intimidated
into silence.
“They are abusing their power because they think they are untouchable,”
Khalil said. “Unless they feel there is some sort of accountability, it
will continue to go unchecked.”
Khalil said he plans to share any settlement money with others targeted
in Trump’s “failed” effort to suppress pro-Palestinian speech. In lieu
of a settlement, he would also accept an official apology and changes to
the administration’s deportation policies.
A White House spokesperson deferred comment to the State Department,
which said its actions were fully supported by the law.
In an emailed statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the
Department of Homeland Security, called Khalil’s claim “absurd,”
accusing him of “hateful behavior and rhetoric” that threatened Jewish
students.
Harsh conditions and an ‘absurd’ allegation
The filing accuses President Donald Trump and other officials of
mounting a haphazard and illegal campaign to “terrorize him and his
family,” beginning with Khalil’s March 8 arrest.
On that night, he said he was returning home from dinner with his wife,
Noor Abdalla, when he was “effectively kidnapped” by plainclothes
federal agents, who refused to provide a warrant and appeared surprised
to learn he was a legal U.S. permanent resident.
He was then whisked overnight to an immigration jail in Jena, Louisiana,
a remote location that was “deliberately concealed” from his family and
attorneys, according to the filing.
Inside, Khalil said he was denied his ulcer medication, forced to sleep
under harsh fluorescent lights and fed “nearly inedible” food, causing
him to lose 15 pounds (7 kilograms). “I cannot remember a night when I
didn’t go to sleep hungry,” Khalil recalled.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration publicly celebrated the arrest,
promising to deport him and others whose protests against Israel it
dubbed “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
Khalil, who has condemned antisemitism before and since his arrest, was
not accused of a crime and has not been linked to Hamas or any other
terror group. “At some point, it becomes like reality TV,” Khalil said
of the allegations. “It’s very absurd.”
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Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and his wife, Dr. Noor
Abdalla, hold their baby Deen during an interview, July 3, 2025, in
New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Deported for beliefs
A few weeks into his incarceration, Khalil was awoken by a fellow
detainee, who pointed excitedly to his face on a jailhouse TV
screen. A new memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio
acknowledged Khalil hadn’t broken the law, but argued he should be
deported for beliefs that could undermine U.S. foreign policy
interests.
“My beliefs are not wanting my tax money or tuition going toward
investments in weapons manufacturers for a genocide,” Khalil said.
“It’s as simple as that.”
By then, Khalil had become something of a celebrity in the
1,200-person lock-up. When not dealing with his own case, he hosted
“office hours” for fellow immigrant detainees, leaning on his past
experience working at a British embassy in Beirut to help others
organize paperwork and find translators for their cases.
“I’m pretty good at bureaucracy,” Khalil said.
At night, they played Russian and Mexican card games, as Khalil
listened to “one story after another from people who didn’t
understand what’s happening to them.”
“This was one of the most heartbreaking moments,” he said. “People
on the inside don’t know if they have any rights.”
Lost time
On June 20, after 104 days in custody, Khalil was ordered released
by a federal judge, who found the government's efforts to remove him
on foreign policy grounds were likely unconstitutional.
He now faces new allegations of misrepresenting personal details on
his green card application. In a motion filed late Wednesday,
attorneys for Khalil described those charges as baseless and
retaliatory, urging a judge to dismiss them.
The weeks since his release, Khalil said, have brought moments of
bliss and intense personal anguish.
Fearing harassment or possible arrest, he leaves the house less
frequently, avoiding large crowds or late-night walks. But he lit up
as he remembered watching Deen taking his first swim earlier in the
week. “It was not very pleasant for him,” Khalil said, smiling.
“I’m trying as much as possible to make up for the time with my son
and my wife,” he added. “As well thinking about my future and trying
to comprehend this new reality.”
Part of that reality, he said, will be continuing his efforts to
advocate against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than
57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children,
according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On the day after his release,
he led a march through Manhattan, draped in a Palestinian flag — and
flanked by security.
As he poured Deen’s milk into a bottle, Khalil considered whether he
might’ve done anything differently had he known the personal cost of
his activism.
“We could’ve communicated better. We could’ve built more bridges
with more people,” he said. “But the core thing of opposing a
genocide, I don’t think you can do that any differently. This is
your moral imperative when you’re watching your people be
slaughtered by the minute.”
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