ICE Arrests Palestinian Immigrant at His Citizenship Test
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said that he was going to take away visas from “antisemitic foreigners” on college campuses. But his first target, Mahmoud Khalil, is not a visa holder; he is a legal permanent resident and the husband of an American citizen, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents discovered as they were detaining Khalil.
Now, the Trump administration is trying to deport a Palestinian-American immigrant on the cusp of citizenship. Ten-year legal U.S. resident and Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi showed up at an immigration center in Vermont on Monday for what he thought was his naturalization appointment. Instead, ICE agents swooped in and “refused to provide any information as to where he was being taken or what would happen to him,” according to a statement by Vermont lawmakers.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, referred Reason to the State Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Columbia students gathered with candles and Palestinian flags at the Sundial, a monument at the center of campus, on Monday night. The apparent leader of the demonstration declined to be interviewed but said she had already been planning to hold a vigil before Mahdawi’s arrest. After a moment of silence, she recited an Islamic prayer for the dead and a poem by Palestinian-American poet Noor Hindi. A man in a suit walked by and muttered, “Isn’t this not allowed anymore?”
Khalil and Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian student union at Columbia, and Mahdawi was president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association for two years, according to the court filings. While Khalil is soft-spoken in public, Mahdawi comes off as the hothead of the duo. He has been frank about his struggles between feelings of vengeance and forgiveness.
“Radicalism is not Justice, and will not make Justice,” he wrote on Instagram in November 2024. “Justice is balanced, Justice is compassionate, Justice is empathetic, and Justice is transformative.”
In any case, Mahdawi hasn’t been accused of any crime, according to a habeas corpus petition filed by his lawyers. Vermont District Court Judge William Sessions issued a temporary restraining order preventing ICE from removing Mahdawi from Vermont.
“Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity,” Mahdawi’s attorney, Luna Droubi, said in a statement to The Intercept. “He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.”
The filing by Mahdawi’s lawyers speculates th
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