Immigration agents nabbed an anti-Israel Columbia University protester while he was at an appointment to obtain his US citizenship in Vermont Monday.
Palestinian student Mohsen Madawi, who hails from the West Bank, was detained at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in Burlington after spending 10 years in the US and obtaining his green card, according to the Intercept.
It now appears, however, that the Trump administration is seeking to cut Madawi’s time short in the US after he helped lead anti-Israel protests on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus until last spring.
Video footage posted on X Monday appeared to show Mahdawi being escorted with his hands shackled in front of him and surrounded by federal agents, who placed him into an unmarked vehicle.
“It’s kind of a death sentence,” Mahdawi, who previously led Columbia’s Palestinian student union, said, according to the Intercept.
“Because my people are being killed unjustly in an indiscriminate way.”
Mahdawi “was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity,” his attorney, Luna Droubi, told the outlet.
“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,” she added.
Columbia declined to comment, citing its Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) obligations.
Neither DHS nor the State Department responded to requests for comment.
Mahdawi, who was friends with detained anti-Israel Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil, anticipated becoming a target of the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort and went into hiding, asking the university for help finding shelter, according to the Intercept.
But Columbia didn’t respond to his request, he said.
While Mahdawi was holed up, USCIS notified him that they had moved his citizenship interview, which he expected would take place in January or December, and he became concerned it was part of a setup.
Mahdawi was nabbed as he showed up to the appointment this week, the Intercept reported.
The FBI also visited Mahdawi late last year, but didn’t take any action against him.
“This is the outcome,” Mahdawi said, according to the outlet. “I will be either living or imprisoned or killed by the apartheid system.”
Mahdawi appeared on “60 Minutes” in December 2023, when he criticized then-Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel for failing to acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians, according to the Intercept.
“That’s why they’re crushing universities now, it’s not only about Palestine,” he said.
“People ask me why I would want to become a citizen of a country committing genocide. I have faith in the people living in this country. The government is not the people.”
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted Mahdawi’s arrest.
“Mohsen Mahdawi of White River Junction, Vermont was illegally detained by ICE during what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process,” he wrote on X with a joint statement from fellow state lawmakers, Sen. Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint.
“Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the US, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.”
