U.S. authorities arrested in Vermont Mohsen Mahdawi, one of the founders of the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia University, just as he was completing the final steps to obtain citizenship.
According to insiders, the operation appears to be part of the Trump administration’s growing crackdown on university activists. Mahdawi, who has lived legally in the U.S. for more than 10 years with permanent resident status, was taken into custody the moment he showed up for a citizenship interview at an immigration office.
“This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal,” Vermont’s Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint, wrote in a statement. “Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention. “Mahdawi … walked into an immigration office for what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process. Instead, he was arrested and removed in handcuffs by plainclothes, armed individuals with their faces covered. ”
The West Bank-born activist co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another green card holder arrested last March, who is now fighting deportation. Both played a role in the protests against the war between Israel and Hamas that affected Columbia during spring 2024, although Mahdawi’s lawyer said his client had played no decision-making role.
“The government has made clear that it intends to retaliate and punish individuals such as Mr. Mahdawi who advocated for ceasefire and ending the bloodshed in Gaza,” the lawyer added.
The activist had finished his studies at Columbia and expected to graduate in May, then return to campus in the fall for a master’s degree. In recent months, several students have had their visas abruptly revoked because of measures taken by the Trump administration to punish protesters who took part in anti-Middle East war protests, which have affected numerous U.S. colleges.
As part of this effort, the Department of Homeland Security announced on April 9 that it would begin examining the social media accounts of foreigners planning to enter the country for any evidence of anti-Semitic activity.
This raised immediate concerns about how U.S. authorities would conduct such screenings and that any criticism of Israel or the conflict in Gaza would be sufficient to prevent an individual from entering the United States.
Meanwhile, protests also continue at Georgetown University, where 370 alumni joined 65 students in signing a letter opposing immigration authorities’ detention of Indian-born Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center.
Officials revoked his J-1 visa, claiming that his father-in-law was a Hamas adviser more than a decade ago, and stating that he was “deportable” because of his social media posts in support of Palestine.
“We see his detention clearly for what it is: an attempt to instill fear, silence critical thought, and erode solidarity among students and scholars of varying backgrounds and identities,” the students of Georgetown added. “We reject this attempt and demand his immediate release.”
