Palestine protester Mahmoud Khalil to sue Trump's administration $20M for 100 days in ICE detention

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil has announced plans to sue Donald Trump's administration for $20million after he was detained and held by ICE for over 100 days.
The Palestine activist brought the claim on Thursday through the Federal Tort Claims Act, a 1946 law that allowed citizens to sue the government and its employees for official wrongdoing.
Khalil was arrested by immigration agents on March 8 and, on June 20, a judge ruled he had to be released, which he was on June 21.
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Trump was named in Khalil's letter, as was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both of whom - along with Homeland Security officials - 'boastfully proclaimed their intentional targeting of him for deportation, describing [his] arrest as the first step in a broader campaign to deport campus protesters', according to his lawyers.
Khalil's attorneys also took issue with how ICE showed up at his university-owned apartment and arrested him in front of his then-pregnant wife, who's a U.S. citizen.
The lawyers described it as a kidnapping and blasted the administration for keeping him in Louisiana's ICE facility, far away from his wife and family.
Khalil was involved in pro-Palestine protests last year on Columbia's campus in Manhattan, where administrators and students had set up camps to rail against Israel's war in Gaza.
In a statement, Khalil said: 'There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power.'
The $20million Khalil wanted from the government's for personal injury.
His lawyers argued that his detention was illegal and said he was subjected to cold temperatures and sleep deprivation due to the lights always being on.
The letter also mentioned that Khalil lost 15lb due to poor-quality food.
Other harms he'd endured were listed, such as him missing his Columbia graduation - and the birth of his son.
Homeland Security's Tricia McLaughlin said the lawsuit was absurd and that the government was well within its authority to detain Khalil.
On June 13, a federal judge allowed the government to continue to hold Khalil on the basis that he allegedly lied on his green card application.
Before that, lawyers for the main Justice Department's rationale for detaining Khalil was based on an infrequently cited law that gave the sitting secretary of state the power to deport any illegal immigrant who presented 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States'.
Rubio invoked the law after Khalil's arrest, arguing that his continued presence in the country would undermine America's ability to combat anti-Semitism and its 'efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States'.
On June 21, District Judge Michael Farbiarz authorized Khalil's release because he deemed him not to be a threat to the community or a flight risk.
Khalil arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport that same day to the fanfare of hundreds, including New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
As he stood next to Ocasio-Cortez, he said: 'If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine.'
Representatives for Khalil said that he would accept an official apology from the government in lieu of payment.
Khalil would also not ask for the $20million if the Trump administration ceased going after students for pro-Palestinian speech.
As a matter of policy, Trump's made demands of prestigious higher education institutions such as Harvard University, and ordered them to dismantle their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives as well as affirmative action programs.
A representative for the Center For Constitutional Rights, which submitted the claim on Khalil's behalf, told The Wall Street Journal it's required to wait six months to file the actual lawsuit so agencies had time to conduct investigations prior to trial.