Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student facing deportation over his anti-Israel activism, filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the Trump administration, the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar of conspiring to target him and other pro-Palestinian activists for arrest, detention and deportation.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, alleges that administration officials and the three organizations coordinated to “single out Mr. Khalil and other non-citizen Palestinians and their supporters for arrest, detention and deportation, as punishment for their support of Palestinian rights.”
“The Trump administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority with respect to Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews and damages property,” a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told JNS. “We would encourage him to use the CBP Home app and self-deport now before he is arrested, deported and never given a chance to return.”
According to the complaint, the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther served as the blueprint for the alleged effort, with Canary Mission and Betar identifying activists for the administration to target. The suit alleges the groups publicly labeled those activists as terrorists or antisemites and warned they faced arrest and deportation before federal authorities detained or sought to remove them.
“This lawsuit is about far more than what was done to me. It is about a coordinated, ongoing plot to punish, silence and intimidate everyone who dares to dissent and speak out for Palestinian liberation,” Khalil stated. “We will hold them accountable.”
A spokesman for the Heritage Foundation told JNS that the organization “will continue to make policy recommendations as we have for the last 53 years, and will be undeterred by those attempting to silence us.”
