In a battle over free speech and government overreach, Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil has taken his fight to federal court after reportedly being unlawfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Khalil, a lawful permanent resident and outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights, was arrested last week in what his legal team describes as a blatant act of retaliation by the Trump administration for his political activism.
On March 13, Khalil’s lawyers filed an amended habeas petition and complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenging his detention as unconstitutional and an abuse of executive power. The case has drawn widespread condemnation from civil rights groups, who argue that the administration’s actions set a dangerous precedent for criminalizing dissent.
The Trump administration has acknowledged that Khalil has not been charged with or accused of any crime. Instead, officials are seeking to revoke his green card and deport him under a vague and rarely invoked provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows removal if there are “reasonable grounds” to believe an individual’s presence in the U.S. could cause “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” The White House justified its move by citing Khalil’s leadership in organizing pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia, including his role as a lead negotiator during the Gaza solidarity encampments.
Khalil’s attorneys call this legal rationale absurd and a clear violation of his First Amendment rights. The federal government, they argue, is deploying a Cold War-era tactic to suppress speech critical of U.S. foreign policy.
Leading Khalil’s legal defense is a coalition of prominent civil rights organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and the CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) project at CUNY School of Law.
Amy Greer, associate attorney with Dratel & Lewis, denounced the arrest as part of a broader campaign to suppress activism on U.S. campuses.
“Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and detention is an escalation of the U.S. Government’s continual efforts to suppress the speech and association rights of student organizers seeking to hold the U.S. accountable for its facilitation of the genocide being exacted upon the people of Gaza and the Occupied West Bank,” Greer stated. “We the People should stand up against these repressive efforts and protect those rights so critical to the fabric of our nation that they were included in the First Amendment of our nation’s Constitution.”
Ramzi Kassem, founding director of CLEAR, called the government’s actions “extraordinary, shocking, and outrageous.” He underscored the grave implications of Khalil’s detention:
“It simply cannot be the case that government agents can disappear Mahmoud or anyone else, at night, on the streets of New York City because the current U.S. government, the current administration dislikes what you have to say. We think it won’t fly in the federal court, it won’t fly in an immigration court, and it certainly won’t fly in the court of public opinion.”
Civil rights groups have pointed out that the legal mechanism used against Khalil is unprecedented in modern times. The provision cited by the Trump administration was originally designed for extreme national security concerns but is now being applied to student activism.
Khalil’s case is the latest in a string of government actions targeting Palestinian rights activists under the Trump administration. Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, framed the arrest as part of a calculated strategy to silence critics of U.S. foreign policy.
“The Trump administration has been targeting Palestinian human rights activists from day one, smearing them with every tired and empty trope,” Azmy said. “Rather than engage with its own role in the genocide and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, the administration is using the government’s full power to make an example of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student leader beloved in his campus community and known for his integrity. His arrest and attempted deportation for what is constitutionally protected speech is a replay of McCarthyist repression that is intolerable to a democracy.”
The administration’s move has sparked outrage among legal scholars and civil rights advocates, who see this as a dangerous expansion of presidential authority. Critics argue that this case is not just about one student but about the broader implications for civil liberties in the U.S. If Khalil can be arrested and detained for his political views, they warn, any resident speaking out against government policies could be next.
Brett Max Kaufman, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Center for Democracy, made clear that this case transcends the Israel-Palestine debate.
“This is a clear attempt by President Trump to make an example out of Mr. Khalil and silence dissent across the country,” Kaufman said. “No matter what your views are on Israel & Palestine, we should all be terrified of a government incarcerating its residents for their political opinions.”
The legal battle over Khalil’s detention is shaping up to be a defining test of the Trump administration’s ability to weaponize immigration laws against political activists. Courts have repeatedly ruled against efforts to punish individuals for their speech, and Khalil’s legal team is confident that this case will be no exception.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, emphasized that the stakes extend far beyond Khalil’s personal fate.
“With today’s filing, we are making it crystal clear that no president can arrest, detain, or deport anyone for disagreeing with the government,” Lieberman said. “The Trump administration has selectively targeted Mr. Khalil, a student, husband, and father-to-be who has not been accused of a single crime, to send a message of just how far they will go to crack down on dissent. But we at the NYCLU and ACLU won’t stand for it — under the Constitution, the Trump administration has no basis to continue this cruel weaponization of Mr. Khalil’s life.”
The federal court has already issued an emergency order preventing Khalil’s deportation while his case is heard. His legal team is now pushing for his immediate release and a ruling that his detention violates both his free speech and due process rights.
“This case is about fundamental freedoms,” Lieberman added. “Ideas are not illegal, and dissent is not grounds for deportation.”
