A student from Columbia University who co -founded, with Mahmoud Khalil, a university organization called Union of Palestinian Students was arrested Monday by national security agents, his lawyer told ABC News.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a permanent resident of the United States, was arrested and detained after attending his naturalization interview in Vermont.
Subsequently, the United States District Judge, William Sessions, granted Mahdawi’s lawyers a temporary restriction order that prohibits the government from moving Mahdawi from the Vermont district “pending more order” of the Court.
At Columbia University, Mahdawi was an “open critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and an activist and organizer in student protests on the Columbia campus until March 2024, after which she took a step back and has not been involved in the organization”, according to a habit request obtained by ABC News.
Mahdawi’s lawyers described their arrest as “illegal” and said that the first amendment violates.
“The arrest and illegal detention of Mr. Mahdawi occurs after the respondents adopted a policy … to retaliate and punish non -citizens for their speech and expressive conduct related to Palestine and Israel,” said lawyers.
A spokesman for immigration and customs control sent ABC News to the State Department, who did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The student of Columbia and the Palestinian Mohsen Madawi was arrested during a visit to the Immigration Office in Colchester, VT, April 14, 2025.
Christopher Helali
According to Habeas, Mahdawi was born and grew in a refugee camp in the West Bank, until 2014, when he moved to the United States. He has been a legal resident during the last 10 years and is expected to graduate from Columbia next month.
In December 2023, Mahdawi appeared in the television news program “60 minutes”, where he shared that “when he was a child, he saw an Israeli soldier to shoot and kill his best friend in the West Bank,” the petition said.
“Mr. Mahdawi fears that, if he loses his status as a legal permanent resident and is transferred to the West Bank, he will experience the same harassment, detention and torture that his family has experienced, and would be in more danger in the light of the campaigns that have attacked and broadcast on him,” said his lawyers.
Mahdawi’s lawyers believe that, like Khalil, it is being attacked by the Trump administration under the Immigration and Nationality Law Section 237 (a) (4) (c) (i), which states that the Secretary of State may consider a deportable person if he has reasonable land to believe that the presence or activities of the person in the United States could have consequences of adverse foreign policies.
In a judicial presentation in the case of immigration of Khalil, DHS presented a two -page memorandum of the Framework Secretary of State Rubio, stating that the law gives him the power to determine that a person is deportable even if his actions are “otherwise legal.”
Rubio wrote that Khalil should be deported due to his supposed role in “anti -Semitic protests and disruptive activities, which encourages a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”
Mohsen Mahdawi is seen in this photo without date
Obtained by ABC News
An immigration judge ruled on Friday that Khalil can be deported based on these reasons.
Khalil, head of the green card and permanent legal resident who is married to an American citizen, was arrested for the application of immigration and customs in his home in Columbia in March after helping to lead protests in Columbia for the war in Gaza. He participated in negotiations with school administrators who demanded that the institution reduce ties with Israel and the disinvestment of Israeli companies.
Khalil finished his postgraduate studies in Columbia in December and will graduate in spring.
Luke Baro de ABC News contributed to this report.