Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, whose role in campus protests against Israel led to his detention for over three months in immigration jail, is now seeking $20 million in damages from the Trump administration. His lawyers filed a claim Thursday, alleging false imprisonment and malicious prosecution after his March arrest by federal agents. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, said he suffered severe anguish in jail, and continues to fear for his safety. The government has accused him of leading protests aligned with Hamas, but has not provided any evidence of a link to the terror group.

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention. Khalil has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. The judge said Friday it would be "highly, highly unusual" for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn't been accused of any violence. The Trump administration says Khalil must be expelled from the country because his continued presence could harm American foreign policy. His lawyers say the Trump administration is simply trying to crack down on free speech.

Colleges around the country are reporting cases of international students suddenly learning their visas have been revoked. Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but college leaders say the government has been quietly terminating students' legal residency status with little notice to students or schools. It marks a shift from past practice and leaves students vulnerable to detention and deportation. A growing list of colleges that have announced discovering students with revoked status recently includes Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA and Ohio State University.

A crackdown on foreign students is alarming college leaders, who say the Trump administration is using new tactics and vague justifications to push some students out of the country. College officials worry the new approach will keep foreigners from wanting to study in the U.S. Colleges across the country have been startled to find that some of their students are being ordered to leave the U.S. — often without warning. Some have been targeted for pro-Palestinian activism or criminal infractions, while others have been left wondering how they ran afoul of the government. President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

A Turkish student detained by federal police as she walked on the streets of a Boston suburb is the latest supporter of Palestinian causes to be swept up in the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants who have expressed their political views. U.S.. government lawyers said Thursday that 30-year-old Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, had been moved out of Massachusetts by the time her lawyer went to court and a judge ordered her to be kept in the state. The lawyers said that Ozturk, who was detained Tuesday, is in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. They said her lawyer spoke with her Wednesday night.

A federal judge says a Columbia University student activist's legal challenge of his detention by the U.S. government will be heard in New Jersey rather than New York or Louisiana. Judge Jesse Furman on Wednesday ordered the switch to New Jersey to occur immediately for the claims brought by Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia. The judge said the case belongs in New Jersey because Khalil was in a detention facility there when the lawsuit was filed. U.S. officials had asked that it be moved to Louisiana, where Khalil is now detained. The judge called it an "exceptional case" in need of "careful judicial review."