Activist sues Trump administration and pro-Israel groups over alleged conspiracy
Former Columbia University graduate student alleges coordinated campaign of doxing, imprisonment and deportation by government officials and private organisations.
Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and prominent pro-Palestinian activist, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing senior Trump administration officials, the Heritage Foundation, and online surveillance groups Canary Mission and Betar of conspiring to suppress criticism of Israel. The suit, lodged in federal court on Tuesday, alleges a coordinated campaign involving doxing, imprisonment, and deportation efforts against supporters of the pro-Palestinian movement.
Khalil’s legal team argues that this alleged coordination may violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law designed to restrict government cooperation with vigilante groups. The complaint characterises the alliance between government officials and private groups as a "public-private partnership," a concept previously highlighted in a separate trial last year.
The lawsuit targets a specific network of actors. Khalil accuses senior officials within President Donald Trump’s administration of working alongside leaders of the Heritage Foundation and the online surveillance platforms Canary Mission and Betar. Inquiries to the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission, and Betar regarding the allegations were not immediately returned as of Tuesday.
Khalil, 31, became a focal point of the administration’s crackdown on Palestinian rights demonstrators after his arrest in March 2025. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him at his campus apartment. He was held for 104 days in a Louisiana immigration jail, a period during which he missed the birth of his first child, before a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release.
A legal permanent resident married to a US citizen, Khalil has denied that his activism constitutes antisemitism. He previously stated that his opposition was directed at public funding for weapons manufacturers, asserting that his beliefs were not about targeting Jewish communities but about opposing investments in what he described as genocide.
His deportation case remains a priority for the Trump administration and has moved with unusual speed through executive-branch-controlled immigration courts. The matter is expected to reach the US Supreme Court in the near future, potentially setting a significant precedent for the intersection of political activism and immigration enforcement.
