Columbia scholar activist and inexperienced card holder arrested throughout citizenship interview | EUROtoday

Mohsen Mahdawi walked out in handcuffs shortly after arriving for a citizenship interview contained in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service workplace in Vermont.

Mahdawi, a lawful everlasting resident who has held a inexperienced card for no less than 10 years, was anticipating a scheduled interview in Colchester as a part of his citizenship course of on Monday. Instead, hooded federal brokers walked him right into a automobile and drove off.

Born and raised in a refugee camp within the West Bank, the place he lived till shifting to the United States in 2014, Mahdawi is among the many newest Columbia University scholar activists marked for elimination by Donald Trump’s administration for his or her Palestinian advocacy.

A federal decide on Monday swiftly granted a short lived restraining order blocking his elimination from the state after Mahdawi’s attorneys filed a petition with the courtroom difficult his arrest and detention. He stays within the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in accordance with the company’s inmate locator.

Members of Vermont’s congressional delegation referred to as his arrest “immoral, inhumane and illegal” and demanded his “immediate” launch from detention.

Mahdawi “walked into an immigration office for what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process,” they wrote.

“Instead, he was arrested and removed in handcuffs by plainclothes, armed, individuals with their faces covered,” lawmakers added. “These individuals refused to provide any information as to where he was being taken or what would happen to him. This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.”

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked lots of of scholar visas over campus activism, resulting in a number of high-profile arrests of worldwide students who at the moment are awaiting deportation hearings in distant jails throughout the southern United States whereas the administration conflates protests towards Israel’s conflict in Gaza with antisemitic violence.

After taking workplace, Trump signed an government order that declares U.S. coverage is to “ensure” noncitizens “do not … advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.” Another government order pledges “immediate action” to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities” with a promise to “deport Hamas sympathizers and revoke student visas,” in accordance with a truth sheet from the White House.

Mahdawi’s petition in federal courtroom states that it “appears” he was equally focused for elimination from the nation below the Trump administration’s dedication that there’s “reasonable ground to believe” his presence “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

That language has additionally been used to focus on Mahmoud Khalil, one other Palestinian scholar activist from Columbia.

“Public statements by government officials, including statements by the President and Secretary of State, establish that [the administration] detained Mr. Mahdawi to punish and silence him because of his constitutionally protected speech, beliefs, statements and associations,” his attorneys wrote.

Mahdawi’s attorneys contend that his arrest violates his First and Fifth Amendment rights.

“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,” his attorneys wrote.

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Like Khalil, Mahdawi was among the many outstanding faces of Columbia’s student-led campus demonstrations towards Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza, making him a first-rate goal for far-right pro-Israel activist teams which have shared details about scholar activists with federal legislation enforcement.

At Columbia, the place he enrolled in 2021, Mahdawi helped set up the Palestinian Student Union (Dar) with Khalil. His attorneys describe him as a “committed Buddhist” who “believes in non-violence and empathy as a central tenet of his religion.”

Mahdawi was featured in a section on campus protest for 60 Minutes on CBS News in December 2023, throughout which he described how he confronted an agitator who shouted antisemitic chants.

“I was shocked, and I walked directly to the person, and I told him, ‘You don’t represent us,’ because this is not something that we agree with,” he stated. “To be antisemitic is unjust, and the fight for the freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand, because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Last week, Louisiana immigration courtroom decide Jamee Comans decided that the Trump administration can deport Khalil for his involvement in campus demonstrations. The administration’s claims that Khalil poses “adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States is “facially reasonable,” the decide stated.

Khalil can be difficult the constitutionality of his arrest and detention in a federal courtroom in New Jersey, the place his attorneys efficiently moved jurisdiction to deal with a authorized problem to his arrest.