Ex-Columbia Student Files $20 Million Claim Over ICE Detention

Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student detained for more than three months, has filed a claim seeking $20 million in damages from the US, arguing he was wrongly imprisoned because of support for pro-Palestinian causes on campus.

His lawyers argued in a letter to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security Thursday that Khalil was “deprived of his liberty” as part of a “broader campaign to deport campus protesters.” Khalil was released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana last month after a US judge ordered him freed.

“The abusive and unlawful conduct by US officials, from unlawful arrest to unlawful prolonged detention, have caused and will continue to cause Mr. Khalil severe emotional distress, economic hardship, and damage to his reputation,” his lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote in the letter. “Mr. Khalil seeks an award of damages to compensate for the harms he has suffered.”

Former Columbia Univrsity student Mahmoud Khalil speaks to the press as he arrives at Newark airport in Newark, New Jersey, on June 21.

Photographer: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

Khalil, who was born in Syria and is Palestinian, become a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus protests after his March 8 arrest at off-campus housing. The husband of a US citizen, Khalil is challenging efforts to revoke his green card and deport him.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, dismissed Khalil’s claim as “absurd.”

“It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil.”

The letter is the start of a claims process for people seeking damages from federal agencies. If it is rejected, he can then file a lawsuit.

His lawyers said the administration’s actions were “retaliatory and punitive” against Khalil and other student activists and in violation of their free speech rights.

Government officials “took extraordinary actions” against Khalil, they said. When Khalil was being fingerprinted after his March arrest, an agent reported, “the White House is requesting an update.” These actions demonstrate “the targeting of Mr. Khalil was maliciously driven by political, not legal considerations,” according to the letter.

The process was “designed to punish and deter him from constitutionally protected advocacy, by terrorizing him and his family,” the lawyers said.

--With assistance from Zoe Tillman.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg

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