New Mahmoud Khalil complaint names Trump and Rubio, and alleges 'targeted, retaliatory detention'

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil filed an amended petition and complaint Thursday that names President Donald Trump as a respondent as the Palestinian activist challenges his attempted deportation for taking part in protests against the war in Gaza.

Lawyers for Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, called the Trump administration’s actions against him “targeted, retaliatory detention and attempted removal of a student protestor because of his constitutionally protected speech," the filing says.

Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities on Saturday in New York City. The Trump administration is arguing that he should be removed from the United States under a foreign-policy clause in immigration law. The filing states Khalil completed his classes at Columbia University in December 2024 and is expected to graduate in the spring.

On Thursday night, Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong said Department of Homeland Security agents entered two university residences. The federal agents did not arrest or detain anyone, but Armstrong said in a message to the school that the agents served Columbia with signed judicial search warrants — per university protocol — to authorize the agency's search.

"No items were removed, and no further action was taken,” Armstrong said in the message.

The amended complaint in Khalil's case, filed in federal District Court in Manhattan, details the 30-year-old's whereabouts and what was allegedly said when he was detained by immigration authorities and sent to Louisiana.

The suit alleges that as Khalil was detained in New York on Saturday night, he saw one agent approach another and say, “The White House is requesting an update.”

The case has caused protests from free-speech advocates who argue that Khalil is not being accused of any crime, but is being punished because of his role in lawful protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Khalil's deportation, saying he will remain in the U.S. as the court weighs the challenge to his arrest and detention.

The amended lawsuit also names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Wednesday that the case was not about free speech.

“This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with," Rubio said. "No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card.”

Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent who is married to a U.S. citizen, played a major role in protests against the war in Gaza at Columbia University. His attorneys call him "a mediator, an active participant in, and at times the public face" of the demonstrations at the Manhattan campus.

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The Department of Homeland Security alleges that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” 

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The war in Gaza, which began after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and after Israel launched a military operation in response, has been intensely controversial on some U.S. college campuses, and some Republicans and others have criticized protests as being antisemitic.

The Justice Department in February announced what it called an antisemitism task force focused on college campuses, and the Trump administration on March 7 said it was canceling around $400 million in federal grants to Columbia.

The Department of Homeland Security has cited an immigration law provision that gives the secretary of state the authority to deport someone if it is determined that the person “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” 

Khalil's lawyers in the complaint are asking that a judge free Khalil immediately. They argue that the administration's actions are intended to punish and chill free speech and violate the First Amendment.

"Secretary Rubio made this determination based on Mr. Khalil’s lawful activity protected by the First Amendment: his participation in protests and his statements regarding Palestine and Israel," Khalil's attorneys argue in the complaint.

"Neither Secretary Rubio nor any other government official has alleged that Mr. Khalil has committed any crime or, indeed, broken any law whatsoever," they wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups involved in the case, said Thursday that Rubio is seeking Khalil's removal using a "vague and rarely-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act."

"With today’s filing, we are making it crystal clear that no president can arrest, detain, or deport anyone for disagreeing with the government," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.