Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist who was detained by US immigration authorities for more than 100 days, is seeking $20 million from the Trump administration over what he says was his false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
Khalil’s lawyers said on Thursday that they submitted the claim against President Donald Trump's Homeland Security and State departments under a law requiring individuals to seek damages directly from the government before filing a lawsuit. Officials have six months to respond.
A DHS spokesperson called Khalil's claim "absurd" and said the Trump administration acted well within its legal authority to detain Khalil.
Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident from Syria, was arrested in March and detained for months while the Trump administration sought to deport him, arguing he supported terrorism.
Who is Mahmoud Khalil?
A leader of Columbia University's Apartheid Divest, Khalil was detained by ICE in early March.
Later that month, the US government alleged that Khalil withheld that he worked for UNRWA in his visa application, saying that these are grounds for deportation, Reuters reported.
Anti-Israel activists chained themselves to a Columbia University entrance gate in early April in a protest based on the belief that a member of the board of trustees reported Khalil to ICE.
Khalil accused Columbia University of laying the “groundwork” for his “abduction” in an op-ed he dictated to the Columbia Spectator in early April, addressing his detention for allegedly spreading Hamas propaganda.