US judge orders Palestinian student detained at citizenship interview released

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered US immigration authorities to release a Palestinian student detained at a citizenship interview earlier this month over his role in Columbia University’s Gaza war protests.

Mohsen Mahdawi, who was slated for deportation, struck a defiant tone outside a courthouse in the northeastern state of Vermont.

“I am not afraid of you,” he said, addressing US President Donald Trump, whose government has led a crackdown on immigration, including targeting pro-Palestinian protesters in the country on visas.

“If there is no fear. What is it replaced with? Love, love is our way.”

Mahdawi was arrested on April 14 as he was attending an interview to become a US citizen, his lawyers said in a court filing.

A Palestinian born in the occupied West Bank, Mahdawi has been a legal US permanent resident since 2015, was set to graduate next month and planned to attend a Columbia master’s program this fall, the court filing said.

He is the co-founder of a Palestinian student group at Columbia alongside Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the movement who Trump has also been trying to expel since his March arrest.

“What did they do to me? They arrested me. What’s the reason? Because I raised my voice and I said no to war, yes to peace,” Mahdawi said Wednesday.

A judge had previously ordered Mahdawi not to be removed from Vermont, after immigration authorities quickly transferred other students detained under the Trump administration’s crackdown to other jurisdictions.

In addition to challenging his removal, Mahdawi has accused the Trump administration of violating the US Constitution with its targeting of student activists.

Trump has launched an assault on US universities over the nationwide protests last year against Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, which has seen most of the enclave reduced to rubble and more than 52,000 Palestinians killed.

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have accused the protesters of supporting the Palestinian armed group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked the war.

The administration also claims that universities have failed to address anti-Semitism on campus.