Trump Administration Shut Down DHS Office Days After It Launch Probe of Mahmoud Khalil Arrest: Report

Ted Shaffrey/AP photo

The Trump administration closed the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties just days after it launched an investigation into the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian-born Columbia University student-activist, CNN reported Thursday.

Khalil, who was in the country legally, was detained by ICE agents on March 8 over his role in campus protests at the New York City university.

The arrest was conducted without a warrant, and Khalil was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana. The US State Department revoked his green card, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing the grad student as an extremist.

According to CNN, the CRCL began a review of Khalil’s arrest, looking for potential violations of civil liberties.

However, the office was abruptly closed, which halted the investigation. Roughly 500 other ongoing civil rights investigations within DHS were ended with the shuttering of the CRCL.

Those investigations included everything from probes into FEMA officials allegedly skipping the homes of Trump supporters in Florida after Hurricane Milton to conditions in migrant detention centers.

A person described as a whistleblower told CNN, “In the days before March 21, 2025, CRCL opened an investigation into due process concerns raised by Khalil’s arrest and his attempted removal from the United States.”

The investigation reportedly never got far, and it is not believed the Khalil probe was the reason the Trump administration closed the CRCL.

ACLU attorney Brian Hauss blasted DHS for closing the CRCL, but said he believed Khalil’s case would be resolved by a judge.

Hauss told CNN, “It is unfortunate that DHS’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office was dissolved before an investigation could be conducted, but we look forward to vindicating his rights in court.”

CNN spoke to numerous sources close to the agency about tis closire of its civil liberties office.

The network’s Priscilla Alvarez and Michael Williams reported: “The whistleblowers also describe open investigations into a wide range of alleged civil rights abuses by immigration officers, including discriminating against travelers based on protected characteristics including their native language, religion or the country they were born in; identifying travelers for screening on the basis of ‘First Amendment protected activity’; and denying reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities during their interactions with DHS officials.”