Palestinian-American activist, Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil filed a case against the Donald Trump administration seeking $20 million in damages for the harm caused to him by the targeted arrest. Khalil is a green card holder, a permanent resident of the US, but was arrested and the administration planned to revoke his citizenship and deport him. Khalil was also denied a temporary release when his wife gave birth to their first child. Last month, Khalil was released from federal immigration detention after being held for more than 100 days without being charged with a crime. Khalil’s attorneys accused the government of subjecting him to false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress, according to the claim filed Thursday.“These harms are the result of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s ad hoc and conclusory determination” that Khalil’s presence in the US poses a foreign policy threat, the attorneys said, adding that if Khalil wins the case and the administration pays him, then he would share the money to help others who are similarly being targeted by the Trump administration. “He would accept, in lieu of payment, an official apology and abandonment of the administration’s unconstitutional policy,” the attorneys said.Khalil could still be deported as the case is going on. “They are abusing their power because they think they are untouchable,” Khalil said. “Unless they feel there is some sort of accountability, it will continue to go unchecked.”Khalil also accused the government of terrorizing him to which the administration reacted and said it was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said it was Khalil “who terrorized Jewish students on campus,” and that “he ‘branded’ himself as antisemite through his own hateful behavior and rhetoric.”The Trump administration, she added “acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property.”
