(COLCHESTER, Vt.) — A federal judge in Vermont ordered the release Wednesday of Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was arrested two weeks ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following his citizenship interview, while his case proceeds.
“The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said at a hearing Wednesday. “Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released.”
Mahdawi, addressing supporters outside the courthouse following his release, called the judge’s decision “a light of hope.”
“Judge Crawford, who ruled to release me against all of the heinous accusations, horrible attacks, chills of speech, First Amendment violations — he had made a very brave decision to let me out,” Mahdawi said. “And this is what justice is. And for anybody who’s doubting justice, this is a light of hope, a hope and faith in the justice system in America.”
“To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi said.
Saying that Mahdawi presents no flight risk, Judge Crawford said Mahdawi should remain in Vermont, where he has a home, and attend school remotely — but said Mahdawi can travel to New York City to meet with his lawyers and go to his university.
Mahdawi, who co-founded a university organization called the Palestinian Student Union with detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank before moving in 2014 to the U.S., where he has been a legal resident for the last 10 years.
Mahdawi, who is expected to graduate from Columbia next month, was arrested at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Vermont, where he was taking his last step in the process to become a U.S. citizen.
Judge Crawford noted at Wednesday’s hearing that Mahdawi received letters of support from over 90 community members, including members of the Jewish community, “who have in a consistent pattern described him as peaceful.”
His lawyers believe that, like Khalil, he is being targeted by the Trump administration under Immigration and Nationality Act section 237(a)(4)(C)(i), which assert that the secretary of state can deem a person deportable if they have reasonable ground to believe that the person’s presence or activities in the U.S. could have adverse foreign policy consequences.
At Columbia, Mahdawi was an “outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and an activist and organizer in student protests on Columbia’s campus until March of 2024, after which he took a step back and has not been involved in organizing,” according to a habeas petition obtained by ABC News.
“He’s being detained based solely on his First Amendment rights — his speech,” Luni Droubi, one of Mahdawi’s attorneys, previously told ABC News. “That’s a violation of the law, that’s a violation of the Constitution, and he should be released immediately as a result of the detention.”
“I think Mr. Mahdawi has made substantial claims that his detention was in retaliation for his protected speech,” Judge Crawford said Wednesday.
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