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Palestinian Activist Detained by ICE Raises Concerns Over Citizenship Interview
A university student and Palestinian activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, was apprehended by US immigration authorities, expressing concerns that his upcoming citizenship interview was a potential trap. Mahdawi, who holds permanent US residency, found himself detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) upon arriving for his appointment on Monday.
In a conversation with CBS News just a day prior to his arrest, Mahdawi revealed his apprehensions, stating, “I’ve been waiting for this for more than a year,” adding an element of doubt about the legitimacy of the interview, questioning, “Is this a honey trap?”
Mahdawi, a philosophy major at Columbia University set to graduate next month, was taken into custody in Colchester, Vermont. His attorney, Luna Droubi, characterized the arrest as a direct response to Mahdawi’s activism on behalf of Palestinians and his identity. She emphasized that his detention serves as an attempt to suppress voices opposing the ongoing violence in Gaza, labeling it unconstitutional.
Court documents reveal that Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and relocated to the United States in 2014. They paint a portrait of him as a devoted Buddhist who embraces “non-violence and empathy” as core principles of his faith.
Mahdawi is not alone in facing such actions, as fellow campus advocates, including Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia and Rumeysa Ozturk from Tufts University, have also been detained. Following Mahdawi’s arrest, a federal judge in Vermont issued a ruling preventing his removal from the state. Meanwhile, Khalil and Ozturk remain confined at an ICE facility in Louisiana.
The BBC has reached out to ICE for further commentary on the situation.
Both Mahdawi and Khalil are recognized as co-founders of Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union and have actively participated in protests in the wake of the Hamas attacks in October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military response. Mahdawi’s legal team indicated that he had stepped back from direct involvement in protests as of March 2024. In December, he appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes, where he made assertions about Israeli actions amounting to genocide, a claim Israel disputes.
Recently, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio disclosed that at least 300 visas of foreign students had been rescinded in a bid to address allegations of antisemitism on college campuses. However, student protest leaders, including Mahdawi, have firmly denied any accusations of promoting antisemitism.
In his last comments before his detention, Mahdawi expressed a broader sense of compassion that extends beyond the Palestinian community, stating, “My compassion is also for the Jewish people and for the Israelis as well.”
On a related note, former President Trump suggested a controversial stance on the possible detention and deportation of US citizens, including to locations like the Cecot prison in El Salvador. Legal experts have largely concurred that such actions would violate both constitutional and prevailing US laws.
Source
www.bbc.com