Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia College graduate, has filed a lawsuit in opposition to his alma mater, alongside seven different unnamed people, to dam the college from handing over scholar activists’ private data to lawmakers in Washington.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, is a response to a request from the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce, led by Rep.
Tim Walberg, which demanded disciplinary information from college students concerned in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Khalil, who holds a inexperienced card and is a lawful everlasting US resident, was arrested over the weekend and is at present being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Louisiana.
He has not been charged with any crime, however the Trump administration claims that Khalil poses a risk to US worldwide coverage pursuits, justifying the potential revocation of his inexperienced card by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A federal choose has quickly blocked the federal government’s try and deport Khalil.
The brand new lawsuit is a direct response to the letter from the Home Committee, which has accused Columbia of failing to guard Jewish college students, a declare that Khalil’s authorized workforce believes is getting used to suppress free speech and goal Palestinian and Arab college students.
Khalil and different scholar activists, who participated in peaceable protests, argue that complying with the Home Committee’s request would consequence within the launch of delicate private data.
This might expose a whole lot of scholars, college, and employees to harassment, threats, and doxing, they contend.
The lawsuit additionally features a warning that non-compliance may end in a lack of federal funding, with the Trump administration threatening to withhold $400 million in grants from the college.
Khalil’s authorized workforce additional claims that the committee is utilizing accusations of antisemitism to assault concepts that they ideologically oppose, accusing them of spreading anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic rhetoric.
Khalil, who acted as a liaison between the protesters and the college administration throughout the protests, began receiving threats previous to his arrest. He volunteered to talk to the media and have become a outstanding determine within the scholar protest motion.
The lawsuit names a number of events, together with Columbia College, Rep. Walberg, the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce, Columbia’s board of trustees, and Barnard Faculty, amongst others.