Lawsuit invokes 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act against public-private targeting of pro-Palestinian speech
Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student and lawful permanent resident facing deportation, filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit Tuesday alleging that senior Trump administration officials and three private organizations conspired to violate his constitutional rights.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses the defendants of coordinating to identify, dox, arrest, and deport noncitizen supporters of Palestinian rights as punishment for their political speech. Khalil, a lawful permanent resident born in Syria to Palestinian parents, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March 2025 and held for 104 days in a Louisiana detention facility, where he missed the birth of his child. He was released in June 2025 but the government has continued its effort to deport him, and a federal appeals court ruled earlier this year that his case must proceed in immigration court.
“This case is about far more than what was done to me,” Khalil said at a press conference Tuesday announcing the lawsuit. “It’s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence, and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation. It’s about exposing the network of organizations, political actors, and institutions that work together to criminalize solidarity with Palestine and to make an example of those who refuse to stay silent.”
The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights on Khalil’s behalf, names as defendants White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The Heritage Foundation, the online surveillance website Canary Mission, and the pro-Israel group Betar are also named as defendants.
The suit alleges that the Heritage Foundation developed a blueprint called “Project Esther” that laid out a plan to identify and target pro-Palestinian noncitizen students for arrest and deportation. According to the complaint, Project Esther described the “conspiratorial plan” to “punish Palestinians and their supporters” and depended on a “public-private partnership” in which a “willing Administration occupies the White House” to leverage federal power. Canary Mission and Betar, the lawsuit says, helped carry out the plan by compiling lists of individuals and doxing them, including Khalil.
The legal basis for the suit is the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era law originally passed to combat violent vigilantism by the Klan. The act allows private citizens to sue over conspiracies that deprive them of constitutional rights.
The lawsuit cites testimony from Peter Hatch, a senior ICE official within Homeland Security Investigations, who said during a prior trial 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. “The direction was to look at the website,” Hatch testified.
Betar US publicly claimed credit for Khalil’s arrest, and the lawsuit cites the group’s statement that it had submitted “thousands of names” to the administration for similar treatment.
A White House spokesperson did not address the allegations in the lawsuit. Instead, the spokesperson referenced Khalil’s ongoing immigration case, saying in a statement that “Khalil 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.” Khalil has denied the allegations of misrepresentation.
The Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission, and Betar did not respond to requests for comment.
Khalil’s case has drawn widespread condemnation from civil liberties and free-speech groups. His legal team has said they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in his deportation fight after the full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 6-5 against rehearing a decision that moved the government closer to deporting him. The lawsuit filed Tuesday represents a new front in that effort, seeking to hold the alleged conspirators directly accountable in federal court.