Palestinian Activist Mohsen Mahdawi Arrested During Citizenship Interview | EUROtoday

A Palestinian Columbia pupil was arrested throughout a citizenship interview Monday after being focused for months by a number of far-right pro-Israel teams.

Mohsen Ok. Mahdawi was taken into custody at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services workplace in Colchester, Vermont, as the Intercept reported and impartial journalist Christopher Helali caught on video.

A federal decide, responding to a request from Mahdawi’s legal professionals, rapidly issued a brief restraining order that he “not be removed from the United States or moved out of the territory of the District of Vermont pending further order of this Court.”

Soon after Mahdawi’s arrest, Vermont’s congressional delegation launched a press release calling it “immoral, inhumane, and illegal,” and stated he have to be afforded due course of and “immediately” launched from detention.

Mahdawi is a lawful everlasting resident of the United States — a inexperienced card holder — who has lived within the nation for a decade and was looking for citizenship. The Intercept reported that Mahdawi now faces potential deportation to the West Bank, which the Columbia pupil informed the outlet was “kind of a death sentence … because my people are being killed unjustly in an indiscriminate way.”

He can be a widely known activist presence on Columbia’s campus and has been interviewed by 60 Minutes, AJ+ and different shops.

And he had been focused by far-right pro-Israel teams like Betar for months.

Last month, Mahdawi’s was certainly one of three names that “we have submitted to the Trump administration” for potential focusing on, Betar informed HuffPost in an e mail on the time. Another identify on the listing was Momodou Taal, who quickly after filed swimsuit in an try and cease his personal deportation. Ultimately, Taal left the United States “free and with my head held high.”

“We confirm having repeatedly provided information on Mohaen Mahdawi,” the group stated in an e mail in response to HuffPost’s questions Monday, apparently misspelling Mahdawi’s first identify. Betar stated it anticipated the opposite individual it named in its March e mail, in addition to “multiple U mass Amherst staff and students,” would quickly be arrested as properly, “we believe.”

The group stated, “We have nothing to apologize for,” including: “As the forefather of Zionism, Ze’ev Jabotinsky said in 1911, No Apologies.”

Canary Mission, an expansive web site dedicated to cataloguing folks and teams that supposedly “promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews,” had additionally written about Mahdawi.

On Monday morning, Mahdawi filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus within the U.S. District Court of Vermont, the Intercept reported. (Habeas corpus is the authorized precept that detention have to be legally justified.)

The petition states that it “appears” Mahdawi may doubtlessly be faraway from the nation pursuant to the identical portion of immigration regulation that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has used to focus on others for his or her speech alone, even with none proof (or allegation) of against the law.

The language permits Rubio to pursue the deportation of these “whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

“Public statements up by government officials, including statements by the President and Secretary of State, establish that Respondents have detained Mr. Mahdawi to punish and silence him because of his constitutionally protected speech, beliefs, statements and associations,” Mahdawi’s authorized staff wrote within the petition earlier than arguing that his arrest violated the First and Fifth Amendments, amongst different alleged violations, and that he must be launched.

Judge William Ok. Sessions III, a Clinton nominee, rapidly granted a brief restraining order sought by Mahdawi’s legal professionals, stopping his transport out of the state with out the decide’s approval.

Neither the State Department, Department of Homeland Security nor the White House instantly responded to a remark request.

Mahdawi, who was born within the West Bank, turned a lawful everlasting U.S. resident in 2015 and enrolled at Columbia in 2021, finding out philosophy and finishing this system final 12 months. He had an anticipated May 2025 commencement date and deliberate to pursue a grasp’s diploma in worldwide affairs on the college after that, in response to the courtroom submitting.

“Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity,” Mahdawi’s legal professional Luna Droubi informed The Intercept in a press release. “He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.”

Though he was focused by pro-Israel teams for his activism, these teams usually misrepresent criticism of Israel as bigotry towards Jews, because the Trump administration has additionally executed in looking for the deportation of sure college students.

And Mahdawi — like loads of others focused by these teams and the administration — doesn’t have a report of antisemitism.

The Intercept famous that final spring, Mahdawi “said he took a step back from the movement to focus on building bridges with Jewish and Israeli communities on campus.” In November 2023, after an unidentified individual “began screaming antisemitic and anti-Black statements” at a protest on Columbia’s campus, Mahdawi denounced the outburst, telling the gang by way of a megaphone, “Shame on the person who called [for] ‘death to Jews,’” the Columbia Spectator reported.

Mahdawi appeared to know he was being focused for potential arrest. According to The Intercept, he “sheltered in place” for 3 weeks after the arrest of his buddy and fellow Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, with whom Mahdawi cofounded the Columbia Palestinian Student Union in 2023.

He additionally unsuccessfully sought lodging from Columbia to guard towards his arrest by ICE brokers and reached out to a number of elected representatives forward of his citizenship interview, in response to the report. Late final 12 months, an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force official visited Mahdawi’s house, The Intercept reported.