New York, New York - The legal team for Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil has filed an amended lawsuit to fight the green card holder's detainment by immigration authorities.

The legal team for Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil (l.) has filed an amended lawsuit to fight the green card holder's detainment by immigration authorities. © Collage: IMAGO / Imagn Images & TAG24/Kelly Christ

Khalil, who is a permanent resident of the US, was (ICE) over the weekend. Since then, he has been detained in LaSalle Detention Facility located in Louisiana, and he is as the high-stakes court case plays out.

In the , a group of attorneys – including the Center for Constitutional Rights, CLEAR, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) – note that Khalil's arrest violated the constitutional rights of free speech and due process and went beyond the legal scope of government authority.

The suit describes the actions by President Donald Trump's administration against Khalil and other Palestine protestors as a "concerted effort to silence protected political speech."

"Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and detention is an escalation of the US Government's continual efforts to suppress the speech and association rights of student organizers seeking to hold the US accountable for its facilitation of the genocide being exacted upon the people of Gaza and the Occupied West Bank," lawyer Amy Greer of Dratel & Lewis said.

The Columbia graduate played a key role as a mediator during on-campus protests against the university's continued support for Israel amid the atrocities in Palestine. The has used the vague Immigration and Nationality Act to justify Khalil's arrest but admitted he had committed no crimes.

"What happened to Mahmoud is nothing short of extraordinary, shocking, and outrageous," Ramzi Kassem, founding director of CLEAR, said. "It should outrage anyone who believes that speech should be free in the United States of America."

Khalil's legal team outlines violations of his constitutional rights Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied in New York on Wednesday to urge Khalil's release. © TAG24/Kelly Christ

During a press conference held on Friday afternoon, Greer shed light on the larger picture surrounding Khalil's arrest.

She highlighted the "escalation" in doxxing and other forms of online harassment targeting Palestinian solidarity protestors on Columbia's campus.

"The attacks on these students have increased exponentially where it's like an almost daily occurrence," Greer said.

"Social media posts identify showing photographs of students, identifying where they're located, where they live, who they're associated with while tagging ICE, DHS, the president, the secretary of state, and numerous others."

Khalil feared he was in "significant danger" before he was arrested, and Kassem explained that the Trump administration aims to make feel the same fear.

"The Trump administration plainly intends to punish, penalize, silence, and suppress speech that it dislikes," he said. "And right now, it happens to be pro-Palestinian speech of the sort that Mahmoud espoused."

"So the objective is to send a message by targeting someone who's been a prominent advocate, a prominent critic of US and Israeli government policies, and to try to make an example of him in the hope that that will undermine the continuing movement," Kassem continued.

Samah Sisay, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, emphasized that Khalil has been denied "meaningful access to legal counsel" and risks missing the birth of his first child, as his wife – a US citizen – is eight months pregnant.

The team is filing an emergency bail motion requiring Khalil to be released, which Sisay noted the court has the right to grant while the habeas petition is pending. A decision about whether Khalil will be returned to New York is expected next week.