US anti-Israel university protest: Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi arrested during citizenship interview

Immigration brokers detained Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) workplace in Vermont on Monday, simply as he arrived for his citizenship interview. Mahdawi, a Columbia University student and activist, was arrested after a decade-long keep within the US, the place he had obtained a inexperienced card.
He had been a vocal chief within the anti-Israel protests on Columbia’s campus, which seemingly drew the eye of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
In a video shared on social media, Mahdawi, palms shackled, is seen being escorted by federal brokers to an unmarked car. His legal professional, Luna Droubi, referred to as the arrest illegal, stating, “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.”

Mahdawi, who led the Palestinian student union at Columbia, has been a goal of criticism and scrutiny because of his pro-Palestinian activism. He advised The Intercept, “It’s kind of a death sentence… because my people are being killed unjustly in an indiscriminate way.” He defined that his previous activism, particularly his position in protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza, had made him a goal of immigration enforcement.
Mahdawi had been hiding after his pal and fellow protester Mahmoud Khalil was detained by immigration authorities, fearing his personal arrest. The USCIS had moved his citizenship interview from December to this week, which raised suspicions that the assembly was a part of a setup. Mahdawi’s fears had been realized when he was arrested as he attended the interview.
His legal professional filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf, arguing that the federal government’s actions violated his due course of rights. A federal choose has since issued a brief restraining order, stopping Mahdawi from being moved out of Vermont whereas his case is pending.
Mahdawi has expressed that he believes his deportation to the West Bank, the place violence and unrest are escalating, would successfully be a “death sentence.” His household within the area has confronted ongoing hardship, together with the lack of family members in battle and the destruction of their properties.
As Mahdawi faces deportation, he joins a rising checklist of scholars and activists who’ve been focused by the Trump administration’s immigration insurance policies, notably these with pro-Palestinian views. This marks one other controversial chapter within the US authorities’s crackdown on immigrants concerned in political activism.