Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian Columbia University student who had been detained by Homeland Security since April 14, was released Wednesday.
A federal judge ordered Mahdawi’s release as the Trump administration continues scrambling to build a case for his deportation.
“I've always learned that home is where you feel safe and loved, and those who surround you there are your people. And you are my people,” Mahdawi told a crowd gathered outside a federal courthouse shortly after his release.
Mahdawi was taken into custody after appearing at a Vermont immigration office for what was supposed to be the final interview in his process of becoming a U.S. citizen. The 34-year-old, who was born in the West Bank and has a green card, has argued that the Trump administration is violating his First Amendment rights by categorizing his pro-Palestinian activism as a threat.
But Mahdawi is just one of a number of immigrants the Trump administration has targeted with unconstitutional detainments and deportations, citing flimsy executive powers and even flimsier evidence of wrongdoing. The list includes political activists Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, who were grabbed by ICE agents and taken to out-of-state detention centers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended the Trump administration’s attacks on free speech with the Orwellian argument that legal U.S. residents like Mahdawi can be expelled based on “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful.”
The Trump administration has been fighting—and frequently defying—federal court orders to justify the detainments and even illegal deportations of legal U.S. residents.
This chaos is designed to overwhelm and paralyze the public into submission, allowing President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional actions to continue. Targeting people whose views don’t align with the government is not simply censorship—it is a warning.
"I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi told the crowd Wednesday. "What we are witnessing now and what we’re understanding is exactly what Dr. Martin Luther King has said before: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
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