NEW YORK – Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil today submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking records of the Trump administration’s communications with the anti-Palestinian organizations that targeted him prior to his arrest. Mr. Khalil remains detained in Louisiana more than two months after federal agents abducted him, acting on information and misinformation that appears to have originated in the network of shady pro-Israel propaganda websites, think tanks, and front groups.
These outfits – which have long worked together to dox, smear, and harrass their political opponents – have recently gained unprecedented influence and access as the Trump administration wages a campaign to deport students and academics in retaliation for speaking out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
All of the known cases of students and scholars persecuted by ICE because of their political views on Palestine – Mr. Khalil, Dr. Badar Khan Suri, Rümeysa Öztürk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Momodou Taal, and Efe Ercelik – were first targeted by the anti-Palestinian groups.
“For years, these anti-Palestinian doxxing groups have served as agents of repression, weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights,” said Ayla Kadah, an attorney and Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
“Now, evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them as they escalate their crusade to target noncitizens for detention and deportation, with Mahmoud Khalil serving as their latest target. Mahmoud deserves answers, and so does the public.”
Canary Mission, an anonymous, secretly funded doxxing site, posted a profile of Khalil in January, and later that month, Betar USA – an affiliate of Betar, an openly racist ultrazionist movement – included him on its now-removed “deport list” and posted on X that ICE was “aware of his home address and whereabouts.”
Betar said it had shared names and information with Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Rubio. On March 7th, the day before Khalil’s arrest, Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus – whose advisory board includes Shai Davidai, a Columbia professor suspended last year for harassing staff – called for his deportation in a post on X and tagged Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
These groups claimed Mr. Khalil was in the country on a student visa, when, in fact, he is a legal permanent resident and green card holder married to a U.S. citizen. Tellingly, federal agents had the same misinformation when they arrested him, wrongly stating that his student visa had been revoked.
The FOIA request seeks all records of communications between ICE, the DOJ, the DOS, and DHS and the anti-Palestinian groups: Canary Mission, Betar, Documenting Jew Hatred On Campus, Columbia Alumni for Israel, Middle East Forum, Shirion Collective, Capital Research Center, and CAMERA.
The FOIA also seeks any communications that the agencies have had with individuals that are reported to have targeted, doxxed, and called for or sought to facilitate the deportation of Khalil and other pro-Palestinian students.
The request was submitted by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is part of the legal team representing Mr. Khalil in his case challenging the constitutionality of his arrest.
In that case, he is also represented by Dratel & Lewis, CLEAR, Van Der Hout LLP, Washington Square Legal Services, the ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the ACLU of Louisiana, and the ACLU of New Jersey.
For more information, please see the case page.
Center For Constitutional Rights
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
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