Columbia pupil detained whereas attending naturalization ceremony, lawyer says

One other Columbia College pupil was detained by immigration authorities in “direct retaliation” for his participation in protests in opposition to the Israel-Gaza struggle, his lawyer mentioned Monday.
Mohsen Mahdawi, who was born and raised in a refugee camp within the West Financial institution and is a U.S. everlasting resident, was taken into custody by the Division of Homeland Safety throughout his naturalization interview in Vermont on Monday, in response to a submitting from the lawyer, Luna Droubi.
The motion comes amid a widening and unprecedented crackdown on international college students. Video posted by a Vermont lawmaker confirmed three officers, two of whom had been masked, escorting Mahdawi in handcuffs to an SUV.
Regardless of quite a few makes an attempt to find him, Droubi mentioned, it isn’t clear the place Mahdawi is being held. A petition difficult his detention says it seems Mahdawi was taken into custody for deportation.
A federal choose briefly blocked his removing Monday.
In a joint assertion, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and the state lawmaker, Rep. Becca Balint, referred to as Mahdawi’s detention “immoral, inhumane and unlawful.”
“Earlier as we speak, Mohsen Mahdawi of White River Junction, Vermont, walked into an immigration workplace for what was speculated to be the ultimate step in his citizenship course of,” they mentioned. “As an alternative, he was arrested and eliminated in handcuffs by plainclothes, armed, people with their faces coated. These people refused to offer any info as to the place he was being taken or what would occur to him.”
“Mr. Mahdawi, a authorized resident of america, have to be afforded due course of below the legislation and instantly launched from detention,” they added.
The Division of Homeland Safety and Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Citing federal privateness legislation, a Columbia spokesperson declined to remark.
Mahdawi’s detention comes days after an immigration choose in Louisiana dominated that Columbia pupil and inexperienced card holder Mahmoud Khalil might be deported — although a federal choose in New Jersey has barred his deportation whereas he challenges his detention in that state.
Federal officers have accused Khalil, who led college students protests at Columbia, of supporting terrorists and harassing individuals based mostly on their religion. The White Home and federal officers have cited a not often used provision in immigration legislation that permits them to “take away aliens who pose critical opposed international coverage penalties for america.”
A pupil at Tufts College, Rumeysa Öztürk, was detained by plainclothes brokers after she wrote an opinion piece in her faculty newspaper criticizing the varsity’s response to the struggle in Gaza, in response to her legal professionals.
Federal officers mentioned final month that tons of of pupil visas have been revoked amid the unprecedented crackdown. An NBC Information evaluation has discovered that the scholars, lots of whom are Center Jap, are from at the very least 29 states.
In line with a short lived restraining order filed Monday by Droubi, Mahdawi moved to america in 2014. The submitting describes him as an outspoken critic of Israel’s navy marketing campaign who helped organized protests at Columbia College till March 2024, when he stepped again.
Mahdawi just lately attended Columbia and deliberate to return to the varsity within the fall for a grasp’s diploma, in response to submitting.