U.S. judge orders release of Mohsen Mahdawi, Palestinian arrested in citizenship interview
A judge released a Palestinian man on Wednesday who led protests against the Gaza war in a Columbia University student and was arrested by immigration officials in an interview about completing U.S. citizenship.
Mohsen Mahdawi leads supporters in singing, including “No Fear” and “Free Pallestine,” outside the court in Burlington, Virginia. He said people must unite to defend democracy and humanity.
“Never give up on the idea that justice will prevail,” he said. “We want to support humanity because the rest of the world (not only Palestine) is watching us. What will happen in the United States will affect the rest of the world.”
Mahdawi's notice in the immigration court said he is mobile under the Immigration and Nationality Act because U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that his presence and activities “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would harm strong U.S. foreign policy interests.”
Mahdawi is a permanent resident of the law for 10 years – detained for his speech advocating for Palestinian human rights.
U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford issued his ruling Wednesday, which was arrested by immigration and customs law enforcement officers on April 14.
The government believes his detention is a “constitutional effective aspect of the deportation process” and the district court has been banned from hearing challenges until and when such lawsuits begin.
happen6:36Columbia newspaper editor says students are censoring themselves out of fear
When the Trump administration threatened universities and detained student activists, campus newspaper editors said students thought twice before they could speak out. Adam Kinder, editor of Colombian Political Review, happened to receive Nil Köksal.
“He follows all the rules”
A group of U.S. congressmen held a rally in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night and urged Mahdawi's release.
“He followed all the rules,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. “He followed the law. But instead of completing the process, Moson was illegally detained. Armed, masked men in ordinary clothes arrested him, forced him into the car, and refused to provide any information about where they took him or why.”
Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014, according to a court application. He recently completed his coursework at Columbia University in New York, expected to graduate in May before starting his master's degree program in the fall.
As a student, Mahdawi is an outspoken critic of Israel’s military movement in Gaza and organized campus protests until March 2024.
A U.S. judge ruled that Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University, could be deported as a national security risk. Khalil is the first arrest of the Trump administration's pledge to suppress campus protests.
He established the Palestinian Student Union in Colombia with another Palestinian permanent resident and American graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained by immigration authorities and sent to a Louisiana facility.
Mahdawi has been held at the Northwest State Correctional Institution in St. Albans, Virginia, compared to doctoral students Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk from Tufts University in Boston area.
The Trump administration has already had legal objections to deportation 100 days after the president, a lawsuit in which plaintiff’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and rights to assemble were violated.
“This is a student who demanded the release of a student arrested by Trump in retaliation for his speech,” the American Liberties Union said in a social media post shortly after his release.
