Mohsen Mahdawi, anti-Israel protester, sends defiant message to Trump after release from ICE detention
Mohsen Mahdawi, the Palestinian Columbia University student who led anti-Israel demonstrations on campus, was released on Wednesday.
Mohsen Mahdawi, the Palestinian Columbia University student who led anti-Israel demonstrations on campus, was released on Wednesday following US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford's order. The 34-year-old anti-Israel student was arrested by the ICE.
Speaking outside the Vermont courthouse, he immediately sent a defiant message to President Donald Trump and his government.
“I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi declared outside the courtroom.
Mahdawi, a Palestinian permanent resident of the United States with a green card for at least ten years, was looking forward to his April 14 interview for citizenship. However, FBI officials detained him.
District Judge Geoffrey Crawford decided on Wednesday that Mahdawi, who is not facing any criminal charges, can be freed on bail while his legal issues are resolved.
‘This is what justice is,’ avers Mahdawi
Mahdawi, who was born and brought up in a West Bank refugee camp before relocating to the US in 2014, is one of several student activists targeted for expulsion by the Trump administration due to demonstrations on campuses against Israel's war in Gaza.
“This is what justice is. And for anybody who’s doubting justice, this is a light of hope, a hope and faith in the justice system in America,” Mahdawi said while speaking to his supporters outside the court.
“We are pro-peace and anti-war,” he continued. “To my people in Palestine: I feel your pain, I see your suffering, and I see freedom and it is very very soon.”
In response to campus activism, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suspended hundreds of student visas. This has resulted in a number of high-profile arrests of international academics who are currently awaiting expulsion hearings, including in isolated prisons throughout the southern United States.
Last week, Mahdawi sat for an interview with Vermont Democratic Senator Peter Welch inside an ICE detention facility. The Palestinian student claimed that Rubio was using a rarely utilized rule from the Immigration and Nationality Act to target those deemed to be threats to US foreign policies.
