AColumbia Universitygraduate who organized pro-Palestine protests has been detained by ICE agents after turning up for his US citizenship interview.
Video shows the moment Palestinian refugee Mohsen Mahdawi was escorted out of an immigration processing building in Vermont in handcuffs on Monday.
Mahdawi made two peace signs with his hands as officers walked him away from the USCIS Burlington Field Office into a police cruiser.
He has filed a habeas corpus petition against the deportation attempt, which says he is a 'lawful permanent resident of the US' who has held a green card for 10 years.
Mahdawi grew up in a West Bank refugee camp, and his attorneys have said that if he is deported he will face 'harassment, detention and torture' in his home country.
The legal document also accuses PresidentDonald Trump's administration of violating his First Amendment rights via the 'retaliatory and targeted detention' and attempt to remove him from the country.
At Columbia University, where he is due to graduate next month, he was an 'outspoken critic of Israel's military campaign in Gaza', his petition says.
In 2023, he co-founded the university's Palestinian Student Union, which 'serves to engage with and celebrate Palestinian culture, history, and identity', along with fellow student Mahmoud Khalil, who was recently deported after a tense court battle.
Mahdawi grew up in a West Bank refugee camp, and his attorneys have said that if he is deported he will face 'harassment, detention and torture' in his home country. He was previously profiled by CBS show 60 Minutes in December 2023, as shown above
Video shows the moment Palestinian refugee Mohsen Mahdawi was escorted out of an immigration processing building in Vermont in handcuffs on Monday
Mahdawi made two peace signs with his hands as officers walked him away from the USCIS Burlington Field Office into a police cruiser
The duo organized several protests, but Mahdawi stepped back from the demonstrations in March 2024, according to his petition.
In December 2023, Mahdawi spoke with CBS show 60 Minutes. He told interviewers that 'as a child, he watched an Israeli soldier shoot and kill his best friend in the West Bank,' his petition said.
'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.
During his 60 Minutes interview, he said he 'could not believe what he was seeing' when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and that he was worried about the 'huge level of revenge' Israel would wreak on his home country.
Mahdawi also condemned anti-Semitic remarks made by one person at the protests on the Columbia University campus who shouted 'death to Jews'.
'I was shocked,' Mahdawi said. 'I walked directly to the person and told him, you don't represent us, because this is not something that we agree with'.
'To be anti-Semitic is unjust and the fight for the freedom of Palestine and the fight against anti-Semitism go hand in hand, because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,' he added.
According to his habeas corpus petition, Mahdawi was born and raised in a refugee camp in Palestine's West Bank, where he lived until he moved to the US in 2014.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University graduate who organized peaceful pro-Palestine protests, has been detained by ICE agents during his US citizenship interview
Mahdawi grew up in a West Bank refugee camp, and his attorneys have said that if he is deported he will face 'harassment, detention and torture' in his home country
Mahdawi has completed his undergraduate degree at Columbia University and is due to graduate in May 2025.
He plans to return to the university this fall to complete a master's in International Affairs at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.
His petition says theDepartment of Homeland Security, led by Marco Rubio, is using the same provision to deport Mahdawi as was used against Khalil.
A judge recently ruled that Khalil, 30, who was born in a Syrian refugee camp to Palestinian parents, could be deported
Rubio said Khalil should be removed because his presence in the US has 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,' citing a 1952 law called the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Mahdawi's fate now hangs in a similar balance.
His lawsuit says that he transferred to Columbia after studying computer science for two years at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
The document says that he was also the president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association for two years, adding that he 'believes in non-violence and empathy as a central tenet of his religion'.
