Mahmoud Khalil sues Trump administration to release communication with anti-Palestinian groups

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil brought a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday, seeking to compel it to release any communication it had with anti-Palestine organisations in the US and individuals in the run-up to his arrest in March 2025. 

Following Khalil's arrest, several anti-Palestinian groups, including Canary Mission and Betar USA, claimed credit for his detention. Betar said specifically that it shared information on activists critical of Israel with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2025. 

“For months, shady organizations and individuals carried out a smear and harassment campaign designed to intimidate and silence me,” Khalil said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit comes after the Trump administration failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request Khalil filed for the documents. 

“The public deserves full accountability for every bad actor who helped make that possible, including those at Columbia who fabricated and amplified these smears and opened the door for state retaliation against Palestinian speech,” he said. 

Khalil, a green-card holder married to a US citizen, was involved in protests against Israel’s genocide on Gaza at Columbia University. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained him March as part of a government crackdown on alleged antisemitism accusations across US campuses. 

Black lists

According to the statement, during the trial that led a federal judge to conclude that the Trump administration had engaged in an unconstitutional policy of “ideological deportation” against Khalil, an ICE official testified that the agency reviewed more than 5,000 names supplied by Canary Mission. 

Peter Hatch, an assistant director for intelligence within ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), said HSI created a "Tiger Team" of officers who had been drafted from other departments to work on compiling reports not just about students and faculty but also other pro-Palestinian voices. 

Sites like Canary Mission act as blacklists where students, activists, and academics with pro-Palestinian views or those who criticise Israel are labelled with accusations of antisemitism and supporting terrorism. 

Canary Mission says it "documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond".

But critics and pro-Palestinian voices say the site is used to censor or silence their freedom of speech by conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel, including Israeli and Jewish voices who are critical of Israeli policies. 

Deportation efforts

Khalil was transferred to an immigration facility in Louisiana for three months - thousands of miles away from his pregnant wife and legal counsel - before a US federal judge said his detention was unconstitutional and ruled he must be released.

Who is Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian student activist facing deportation from the US?

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Khalil became a father in detention and was denied the opportunity to attend his wife’s birth.

Khalil is now seeking all records of communications between ICE, the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and several anti-Palestinian organisations including: Canary Mission; Betar; Documenting Jew Hatred On Campus; Columbia Alumni for Israel; Middle East Forum; Shirion Collective; Capital Research Center; and CAMERA. 

"Mr Khalil and the public at large have the right to know about the depth of the collusion between the federal government and the shadowy groups targeting people who speak out against a genocide,” Adina Marx-Arpadi, an attorney and Justice Fellow at the Center for Consttutional Rights, said in the statement announcing the case. 

After Khalil was released, the Trump administration began efforts to deport him to either Syria or Algeria, alleging that he omitted information on his green card application.

In June, the federal district court in New Jersey issued a ruling that prohibits the government from deporting or detaining Khalil as his federal court case proceeds. 

The US government appealed that decision. 

Over the summer, Khalil filed an administrative complaint against the Trump administration seeking $20m in damages.