NEW YORK — Mahmoud Khalil filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan on Tuesday accusing Trump administration officials and pro-Israel groups of conspiring to target and deport him for his support of Palestinian rights. The lawsuit alleges a coordinated effort between government actors and private organizations to punish individuals based on their political speech and identity.

The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit on behalf of Khalil in Manhattan federal court. It names White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as defendants, along with the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission, and Betar. The suit is brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era statute designed to protect civil rights from conspiracies that deprive individuals of constitutional protections.

The complaint alleges the Heritage Foundation and two of its leaders led the formulation of a document called “Project Esther,” which the lawsuit claims “served as the blueprint” for a “public-private partnership” aimed at defeating the movement for Palestinian rights. According to the filing, Project Esther “was a document that described the plan to identify and target pro-Palestinian, non-citizen students and scholars, who would then be arrested and deported by the federal defendant participants in the conspiracy.” The lawsuit states that individuals “selected for state targeting” by private actors “were nearly automatically targeted by the Federal Defendants for arrest and removal.”

Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident and former Columbia University graduate student, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in March 2025 in his campus apartment.

He was held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana for 104 days and missed the birth of his child during that time. Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents and is married to a U.S. citizen, was released from detention last June after a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release.

The government has continued its effort to deport Khalil. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court ruled that his case must proceed in immigration court, and his attorneys have said they will ask the Supreme Court to intervene. The lawsuit says Khalil's ongoing deportation case appears likely to be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Federal officials initially argued that Khalil could be deported because his views posed a threat to U.S. foreign policy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. would have “adverse foreign policy consequences.” Officials also alleged that Khalil “misrepresented” information on his green-card application, a charge his lawyers deny.

Betar US publicly claimed credit for Khalil’s arrest. The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration coordinated with Betar and Canary Mission in selecting “targets of the conspiracy.” The complaint further alleges government officials worked “hand-in-hand” with these groups “to deprive the selected individuals of their fundamental rights and to broadcast the chilling message that Palestinians and their supporters would be subject to state repression solely because of their identities and constitutionally-protected political viewpoints.”

Last year, Peter Hatch, a senior official within ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division, testified that the agency assembled a team dedicated to investigating student protesters. Hatch testified that the group compiled more than 100 reports based on a list of 5,000 individuals identified on the Canary Mission website. “The direction was to look at the website. That we should look at the individuals named in the Canary Mission website,” he said.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Khalil framed the lawsuit as part of a broader struggle for civil liberties. “This case is about far more than what was done to me. It’s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence, and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation,” he said. He added, “It’s about exposing the network of organizations, political actors, and institutions that work together to criminalize solidarity with Palestine and to make an example of those who refuse to stay silent.” Khalil also warned, “If constitutional protections can be cast aside under political pressure today, they can be cast aside tomorrow against anyone.”

Actors Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector spoke at the Tuesday press conference in support of Khalil. A White House spokesperson responded to the lawsuit in a statement: “Khalil obtained his visa by willfully and intentionally failing to accurately report information relevant to his background. Those who lie to the government to obtain entry into the United States will face justice.”

The lawsuit challenges the legality of a public-private partnership that allegedly targeted non-citizen activists based on political expression, raising constitutional questions about free speech, due process, and the use of immigration enforcement as a tool of political reprisal. The case also reflects a pattern of scrutiny faced by pro-Palestinian student activists, particularly after large-scale campus protests in 2024 and 2025. Khalil previously told The Associated Press that his activism stemmed from opposition to U.S.

funding of weapons used in Gaza: “My beliefs are not wanting my tax money or tuition going toward investments in weapons manufacturers for a genocide. It’s as simple as that.”

The legal outcome could set a precedent for how the government interacts with private watchdog groups in immigration enforcement and whether political viewpoints can be grounds for deportation. With Khalil’s deportation case potentially headed to the Supreme Court, the lawsuit adds a civil rights dimension to an ongoing immigration battle that has drawn national attention.