Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil sued the U.S. government in an immigration detention facility that spent more than 100 days in order to participate in a pro-Palestinian protest on the New York University campus.
His lawyers filed a $20 million (£14.7 million) claim on Thursday, alleging false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and being smeared as anti-Semitic.
Mr. Harrier was arrested by immigration agents on March 8. The U.S. government wants to expel him, believing his activism is not conducive to his foreign policy interests.
A federal judge ruled in late June that Mr. Khalil was not a flight risk or threat to the community and could be released as immigration lawsuits continue.
His lawyers believe Mr. Harrier was subject to false arrests, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of procedures, intentional emotional distress and negligence that lead to emotional distress.
They said these “hazards” were the decision by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “constitute serious and adverse foreign policy consequences and would undermine the interests of forced U.S. foreign policy.”
They believe Rubio’s determination is used to target non-citizens who “participate in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the United States’ support for it.”
Israel denies allegations of genocide in Palestinian enclaves.
In a statement released by Department of Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil’s claims were “absurd” and accused him of “hatred behavior and words” of threatening Jewish students.
The BBC has contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Khalil said in an Associated Press interview that he was seeking responsibility for detention from the Trump administration and “because of the cold effects of such actions on core communities, supporting the core communities in Palestine, for students in general and for the American public.”
He said he is seeking $20 million from the Trump administration or a formal apology “for their wrongdoing against me and others.”
He continued: “What they did to me is trying something, but it has failed, but there is still harm. So unless they feel that they have some sense of responsibility for it, they will continue to be unrestricted.”
Mr. Harrier, a permanent resident of the United States, was arrested from his home in front of his pregnant wife in early March.
He was held in an immigration facility in Louisiana for three months before a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration no longer detained or deported him. On June 20, the judge ruled that Mr. Khalil must be released.
He couldn’t have his first child there and said that was “thing I would never forgive.”
Mr. Khalil, a Palestinian refugee raised in Syria, served as student negotiator last year at a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University in New York City.
Several others criticized Israel’s war in Gaza, including Turkish student Lümesa Öztürk and Indian scholar Badar Khan Suri. Since then, they have been released.
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