The detention of Mohsen Mahdawi comes several weeks after the detention of fellow Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was an associate of Mahdawi.
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 14 during a naturalization interview in Vermont.
The move comes weeks after the detention of Mahdawi’s Columbia associate, Mahmound Khalil, as the Trump administration continues to target non-citizen students in a crackdown on alleged support for Hamas during university protests in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by the terrorist group on Israel.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that allows non-citizen students to be deported for expressing views aligned with Hamas and accused protesters of anti-Semitic activities on campuses.
Mahdawi’s attorneys issued a habeas corpus petition the same day as his detention, April 14. It alleges his detention violates the First and Fifth Amendments, saying the student’s “speech regarding Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, human rights, international law, obligations arising from international law, and related matters is speech protected by the First Amendment.”
“Mr. Mahdawi is fearful that, if he loses his lawful permanent resident status and he is removed to the West Bank, he will experience the same harassment, detention, and torture that his family has experienced, and would be in even more danger in light of the campaigns that have targeted and spread lies about him,” the petition states.
Within hours, a Vermont district court judge, William K. Sessions III, blocked the student’s immediate deportation.
Mahdawi was a legal permanent resident of the United States.
According to the filing, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and co-founded a Palestinian student group, Dar, at Columbia with Khalil.
Last week, an immigration judge ruled that the Trump administration could deport Khalil after the government argued his presence in the United States had “potentially serious foreign policy consequences.” Khalil’s team said they would appeal that decision.
