Immigration officials detained a Palestinian activist and Columbia University student Monday as he attended his naturalization interview, according to his attorney. The interview marked the final step in his process of becoming a U.S. citizen.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder, was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank, moved to the U.S. in 2014, and has held permanent resident status since 2015. He was taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security during his naturalization interview in Colchester, Vermont, his attorney, Luna Droubi, said in the filing, according to NBC News and BBC.
Mahdawi’s lawyer said his arrest was ‘unconstitutional’
Droubi said Mahdawi’s arrest is a “direct retaliation” for his participation in campus protests against the Israel-Gaza war. His detainment is the latest crackdown on immigration, as ICE has taken other international students into custody in recent weeks over pro-Palestine demonstrations.
“His detention is an attempt to silence those who speak out against the atrocities in Gaza. It is also unconstitutional,” she said in a statement obtained by BBC.
Several other international students have been detained over campus-led protests
Mahdawi joins other students, including Columbia’s Yunseo Chung and Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University’s Rumeysa Ozturk, who were also detained in connection to campus protests.
Another attorney on Mahdawi’s legal team, Andrew Delaney, said Mahdawi was detained in Vermont. A petition challenging his detention stated that it appears he was scheduled for deportation, per NBC News. However, a federal judge, William Sessions, granted an order blocking immigration officials from removing him, per NBC News and BBC.
Mahdawi, a philosophy major, was set to graduate from the private New York college next month. According to the court filing, he is a devoted Buddhist who believes in “non-violence and empathy as a central tenet of his religion,” the court filing states, per the BBC. He also co-founded Columbia’s Palestinian Student Society and has been known for his outspoken criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
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