{"id":541880,"date":"2026-07-15T01:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/541880\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T01:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:09:13","slug":"mahmoud-khalil-sues-trump-officials-and-pro-israel-groups-over-conspiracy-to-target-him-mahmoud-khalil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/541880\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahmoud Khalil sues Trump officials and pro-Israel groups over \u2018conspiracy\u2019 to target him | Mahmoud Khalil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mahmoud Khalil<\/a> filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Trump administration officials and several pro-Israel groups, accusing them of conspiring to target him and others as punishment for their support of Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

The former Columbia University graduate student became the face of the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on pro-Palestine speech after he was detained last year. A permanent US resident, Khalil is also fighting in court against the government\u2019s effort to deport him.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit<\/a>, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights<\/a> on behalf of Khalil, alleges that the Trump administration coordinated with Betar and Canary Mission, two pro-Israel online surveillance groups, in selecting \u201ctargets of the conspiracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about far more than what was done to me. It\u2019s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation,\u201d Khalil said on Tuesday at a press conference announcing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about exposing the network of organizations, political actors and institutions that work together to criminalize solidarity with Palestine<\/a> and to make an example of those who refuse to stay silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betar US publicly claimed credit for Khalil\u2019s arrest, and the Guardian reported last year<\/a> that the group had said it had submitted \u201cthousands of names\u201d to the administration for similar treatment. More information about the government\u2019s reliance on the groups emerged last year during a trial<\/a> surrounding the government\u2019s campaign against pro-Palestinian scholars.<\/p>\n

Khalil\u2019s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, names several top Trump officials, including White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, as defendants, as well as the conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges the Heritage Foundation and two of its leaders led the formulation of \u201cProject Esther\u201d<\/a>, an effort the lawsuit claims \u201cserved as the blueprint\u201d for what became a \u201cpublic-private partnership\u201d working to defeat the growing movement for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges government officials worked \u201chand-in-hand\u201d with the groups \u201cto 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

Project Esther, it claims, \u201cwas 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is being brought under the the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, originally passed to combat violent vigilantism on the part of the Klan.<\/p>\n

The Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar US did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

A White House spokesperson said in a statement that \u201cKhalil 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.\u201d A DHS spokesperson said the agency had \u201cacted well within its statutory and constitutional authority with respect to Khalil\u201d.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal immigration authorities arrested<\/a> Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, in March 2025, over his advocacy for Palestinian rights. He was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, where he was held for 104 days, during which he missed the birth of his child. He is married to a US citizen.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration initially argued that Khalil could be deported because his views posed a threat to US foreign policy, with Rubio saying at the time<\/a> that Khalil\u2019s presence in the US would have \u201cadverse foreign policy consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n

Federal officials later also alleged that Khalil \u201cmisrepresented\u201d information on his green-card application, a charge his lawyers vehemently deny.<\/p>\n

His arrest and detention drew widespread condemnation<\/a> from civil-liberties and free-speech groups, and a number of high-profile voices have spoken out on his behalf. At the Tuesday press conference, speakers included actors Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector.<\/p>\n

Although Khalil was released from immigration detention last June, the government has continued its effort to deport him. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court struck a blow to his case when it ruled it must proceed in immigration court.<\/p>\n

Khalil\u2019s attorneys have said they will ask the supreme court to intervene<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, in the trial over the Trump administration\u2019s policy against pro-Palestine students and scholars, details were revealed about how Canary Mission and Betar US had been involved in compiling \u201cdeportation lists<\/a>\u201d they sent to US government officials.<\/p>\n

Peter Hatch, a senior official within ICE\u2019s homeland security investigations (HSI) division, testified<\/a> that the agency assembled a team dedicated to investigating student protesters, and that the group compiled more than 100 reports based on a list of 5,000 individuals identified on the Canary Mission website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe direction was to look at the website,\u201d Hatch said. \u201cThat we should look at the individuals named in the Canary Mission website.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mahmoud Khalil filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Trump administration officials and several pro-Israel groups, accusing them of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-541880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}