From ABC News · ABC News · · 1m 20s
Khalil sues Columbia over campus harassment
The activist ICE detained for months says Columbia ignored his pleas for help before the arrest.
In brief
The activist ICE detained for months says Columbia ignored his pleas for help before the arrest. Khalil's suit argues the doxxing that led to his detention happened because Columbia chose not to act on warnings it received. Originally reported by ABC News.
He's suing the school
Mahmoud Khalil filed a federal suit against Columbia University on Monday, accusing it of ignoring harassment aimed at pro-Palestinian students like him.
He asked for help first
Khalil says he went to Columbia administrators repeatedly in the days and weeks before ICE agents arrested him in March 2025. The suit says nothing was done.
Doxxing, then detention
The complaint draws a straight line from the university's inaction to the campaign that exposed student activists, and from there to Khalil's arrest.
“Defendants' deliberate indifference towards this harassment enabled the coordinated, persistent doxxing of multiple PWG members”
What Columbia allegedly did
By spring 2024 the school was surveilling protesters, calling the NYPD to clear encampments, and running mass discipline against students of Arab or Muslim descent, the suit says.
“increasingly complicit in tolerating and fomenting a campus atmosphere that was rife with harassment”
Months in ICE custody
Agents took Khalil from the campus apartment where he lived as a graduate student. He spent months in immigration detention before his release.
The fight isn't over
Columbia didn't address the suit directly, saying only that a safe campus is fundamental to the university. Khalil got a final removal order in April and is still challenging it in court.
At a glance
Khalil's suit argues the doxxing that led to his detention happened because Columbia chose not to act on warnings it received.
