Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent leaders of US pro-Palestine campus protests, has sued the Trump administration for $20 million over his arrest and detention by immigration agents.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, had been in custody following his arrest in March.
The 30-year-old was freed from a federal immigration detention centre in Louisiana last month, hours after a judge ordered his release on bail.
"The administration carried out its illegal plan to arrest, detain, and deport Mr. Khalil 'in a manner calculated to terrorise him and his family," the claim says on Thursday, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is backing Khalil.
Khalil suffered "severe emotional distress, economic hardship (and) damage to his reputation," the claim adds.
The Columbia University graduate was a figurehead of student protests against US ally Israel's genocide in Gaza, and the Trump administration labelled him a national security threat.
Khalil called the lawsuit a "first step towards accountability."
"Nothing can restore the 104 days stolen from me. The trauma, the separation from my wife, the birth of my first child that I was forced to miss," he said in the statement.
"There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power."
Khalil has previously shared his "horrendous" experience in detention, where he "shared a dorm with over 70 men, absolutely no privacy, lights on all the time."
First of many
President Donald Trump's government has justified pushing for Khalil's deportation by saying his continued presence in the United States could carry "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences."
Khalil's detention was the first of many amid a crackdown by the Trump administration on pro-Palestine voices.
A few days after Khalil's arrest, Trump's claim came due after another pro-Palestine scholar, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, was arrested.
His attorney said he was arrested because of the Palestinian identity of his wife. He was released in May.
After the arrest of Suri, authorities went after another pro-Palestine student, Momodou Taal, asking him to turn himself in.
On March 25, Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student, said she sued the Trump administration to stop her deportation from the US over her participation in a pro-Palestine protest last Spring.
Also on March 25, Rumeysa Ozturk, who is a Tufts University PhD student, was kidnapped in broad daylight by US authorities over criticising Israel's carnage in Gaza.
On April 14, authorities arrested Mohsen Mahdawi during his citizenship interview before he was released on April 30.
Beyond his legal case, Khalil's team has expressed fear he could face threats out of detention.
