Federal immigration authorities have detained another Columbia University student who led protests against the war in Gaza.
The latest action has sparked more outcry from both immigrant rights groups and some lawmakers. It also sparked a protest at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan Tuesday.
What You Need To Know
- Federal immigration authorities have detained another Columbia University student who led protests against the war in Gaza
- This latest action has sparked more outcry from both immigrant rights groups and some lawmakers. It also sparked a protest at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan Tuesday
- Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested and detained by U.S. Homeland Security officials Monday
- New York Immigration Coalition President and CEO Murad Awawdeh joined Annika Pergament on "The Rush Hour" to talk about the student's arrest
“He was a very visible person in the movement for Palestine on campus,” Grant Miner, president of the Student Workers of Columbia UAW 2710, said.
Miner participated in protests at Columbia with student Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested and detained by U.S. Homeland Security officials Monday in Vermont during what his attorneys say was supposed to be a naturalization interview - a crucial step in the process to becoming a U.S. citizen.
“We demand the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, Mahmoud Khalil…and all of the students activists who are being targeted by the Trump administration who are being made an example of for standing up against the U.S. Israel genocide in Gaza,” Gabi Silva, who is with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said.
A friend who took video of the arrest said Mahdawi has been in the U.S. for 10 years.
Mahdawi’s attorneys have filed a petition in court saying his free speech rights are being violated with a “retaliatory and targeted detention.”
On Monday, a federal judge issued an order, barring the government from relocating him out of Vermont or out of the U.S. pending further review of the case.
The Trump administration has not yet commented on this case specifically, but has cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which gives the Secretary of State the power to revoke someone’s permanent residency if deemed to pose a threat to foreign policy.
So far, criminal charges have not been filed against Mahdawi nor Mahmoud Khalil, who is another pro-Palestinian activist that has also played a key role in Israel protests at Columbia and is in custody.
“There’s no crime that any of these students have committed,” Layan Fuleihan, the educational director for The People’s Forum, said. “It’s simply that they are dissenting with the foreign policy choices of the Trump administration.”
Meanwhile, Columbia’s acting president wrote in a statement, “We have been following with great concern the various actions being taken by the federal government toward members of our community. We know this has provoked not only anxiety, but multiple new, day-to-day challenges for our international student community.”
The university’s president went on to say negotiations with the Trump administration continues over more than $400 million in funding frozen because the administration says the school is not protecting Jewish students from antisemitism.
Meanwhile, this week, Harvard University refused the administration’s demands for policy changes while Trump froze more than $2 billion of funding to that school.