Mahmoud Khalil sues Columbia, House Education Committee over student records

Detained activist Mahmoud Khalil filed a lawsuit Thursday against Columbia University and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to stop the school from giving student disciplinary records to lawmakers.  

Khalil, a former Columbia student who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after playing a leading role in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, is suing alongside other students after the House committee sent a letter on Feb. 13 demanding student disciplinary records from certain incidents on campus, saying the school would risk loss of federal funding if it failed to comply.  

The suit is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the transfer of any more records until a decision is reached by the court.  

“The Committee’s Letter is clearly intended to chill the protected speech of University’s students,” the lawsuit reads.  

The lawsuit alleges compliance with the letter would violate the students’ First Amendment rights, privacy laws, contractual obligations by the university’s own rules and “in effect coerces the University to ignore the law.” 

“The records demanded by the Committee are not substantially related to antisemitism. Rather, the Committee has instrumentalized accusations of antisemitism to attack ideas it ideologically opposes. It traffics in anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic dog whistles to justify unjustifiable intrusions on First Amendment rights,” another part of the suit states.  

The federal government has already withheld millions of dollars in funding to Columbia for alleged inaction on antisemitism.  

“This lawsuit changes nothing,” said Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Education Committee. “The information the Committee is requesting is critical to its consideration of legislation on this issue. Our Committee will continue its work to protect Jewish students and hold schools accountable for their failures to address rampant antisemitism on our college campuses.”

“Republicans are steadfast in their commitment to protecting American values and students’ ability to learn,” Walberg added.

Columbia told The Hill it will not comment on pending litigation.  

The lawsuit comes after Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested by ICE last week and is currently held in Louisiana. The Trump administration has made clear that the arrest is in response to his political activities.

“If you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this, and if you tell us, when you apply for your visa, and by the way, ‘I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities, I intend to shut down your universities.’ If you told us all these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in response to First Amendment concerns.

“I hope we would. If you actually end up doing that, once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it,” he added.

Only an immigration judge has the authority to revoke a green card. 

—Updated at 3:55 p.m. EDT