Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was released from ICE custody following an order from US district judge Geoffrey Crawford. Immediately after coming out of the Vermont courtroom, Mahdawi said, “I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”
Mahdawi is a 34-year-old student, a legal permanent resident for 10 years. He was arrested by the ICE when he went for his interview about finalizing his US citizenship. While his legal team contended that he was tricked for his arrest, the Trump administration, citing a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, argued that that Mahdawi’s activities could “potentially undermine” US foreign policy, specifically the Middle East peace process, under a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act
Who is Mohsen Mahdawi? Why was he arrested?
Born and raised in the Far’a refugee camp in the West Bank, Mahdawi moved to the US in 2014. A philosophy student at Columbia University, Mahdawi completed his undergraduate coursework and was set to graduate in May 2025. He has been accepted into a master’s program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has held a US green card since 2015 and has lived in Vermont’s Upper Valley for about a decade
Mahdawi co-founded Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union (also referred to as Dar: the Palestinian Student Society) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest, advocating for divestment from Israel. He was a prominent organizer of pro-Palestinian protests following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent military operations in Gaza
By March 2024, he stepped back from organizing protests, citing concerns over his immigration status and a desire to focus on dialogue, including weekly meetings with Israeli students to discuss the conflict. He has emphasized non-violence and empathy, influenced by his Buddhist practice, which he adopted after moving to the US to heal from childhood trauma.
