Mahmoud Khalil Sues Columbia, Alleging Ignored Harassment Reports Preceded His ICE Detention

Mahmoud Khalil filed a federal lawsuit against Columbia University on Monday, alleging the school's inaction on reported harassment against him and other pro-Palestine students created the conditions for his arrest by immigration agents in March 2025.

Khalil, a Palestinian Muslim who holds an Algerian passport and was formerly a Columbia graduate student, is joined in the suit by Mohammed Ibrahim Zubairi, president of the Palestine Working Group, a student organization within Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. The lawsuit names the Columbia Board of Trustees and SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo as defendants.

The complaint alleges the university showed "deliberate indifference towards and failure to respond to instances of severe, persistent, and coordinated harassment" against the plaintiffs because of their pro-Palestine advocacy, their perceived Arab or Muslim identity, and their status as non-citizens.

"If only I had legal support [from the university] before my detention, I don't think ICE would have came and kidnapped me," Khalil told reporters in New York on Monday.

Khalil said he is not suing over what ICE did to him directly, but over what he described as the university's groundwork that made his arrest possible. He was detained by plainclothes ICE agents in March 2025, part of the Trump administration's stated effort to target non-citizens over what it characterized as anti-Israel rhetoric. Agents told him his student visa and Green Card, obtained through his marriage to a U.S. citizen, had been revoked. He spent 104 days in ICE custody, missing the birth of his first child, before a federal judge ordered his release while the government's case against him continues.

According to the lawsuit, Khalil, Zubairi, and other Palestine Working Group members reported instances of harassment and doxxing to Columbia officials, including Yarhi-Milo directly, over a span of more than five months following the 2024 campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The complaint alleges the university not only failed to act on those reports but retaliated against the group by "repeatedly characterizing its events as security risks" and interfering with its ability to function.

Khalil said he met with Columbia officials multiple times seeking support for the Palestinian campus community, and that "those pleas went nowhere." He said the university instead banned the student groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.

"Our safety and well-being did not serve the ideological project [Columbia's] Board of Trustees was protecting, so they traded us away," Khalil said.

A Columbia spokesperson told Middle East Eye the university is committed to "creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported, and safe" and to "responding promptly and appropriately when concerns arise."

The filing follows a separate lawsuit brought last month by current and former Palestinian students and staff, filed in New York State Supreme Court under New York City's Human Rights Law, alleging Columbia subjected Palestinian community members to discriminatory treatment and targeted pro-Palestinian activism after October 7, 2023.