Washington - Saba:
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking $20 million in damages over his detention by federal immigration agents, in what he describes as "political retaliation" for his pro-Palestinian activism on American campuses.
Khalil, 30, a legal resident of the United States, was arrested last March and released after 104 days by court order from a detention center in Louisiana.
His lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights say his detention was "part of a calculated plan to intimidate and deport him."
Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, has become a prominent figure in the student movement opposing the Israeli war on Gaza, prompting the Trump administration to consider him a "threat to national security," according to official documents.