Judge orders release of Columbia student protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi

A federal judge in Vermont on Wednesday ordered Columbia University student activist Mohsen Mahdawi's release from federal detention while his deportation case proceeds.

U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled Mahdawi was neither a flight risk nor a community threat. Crawford's order allows Mahdawi to return to his home in Vermont and continue attending classes at Columbia.

Crawford’s ruling included a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration, which is trying to deport Mahdawi and scores of pro-Palestinian students and others involved in protests on college campuses. The judge, appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, compared the current “extraordinary” political moment to the “Red Scare” and “McCarthyism.”

“Legal residents — not charged with crimes or misconduct — are being arrested and threatened with deportation for stating their views on the political issues of the day,” Crawford wrote. “The wheel of history has come around again, but as before these times of excess will pass.”

As Mahdawi exited the courthouse, he raised his hands in peace signs, videos and photos show.

“I'm saying it clear and loud to President [Donald] Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi said after he was freed, local public radio station Vermont Public reported.

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the Trump administration is committed to “restoring the rule of law to our immigration system.”

“No lawsuit, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “We have the law, the facts and common sense on our side.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly added, “President Trump and his administration maintain the belief that studying in America is a great privilege, not a right. We continue to hold that any non-citizen who seeks to harm U.S. national security or foreign policy interests as a guest in our country, or who commits crimes while here, should be promptly deported.”

Mahdawi, 34, a Columbia senior and pro-Palestinian antiwar activist, has been a legal permanent U.S. resident for more than 10 years. He was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a naturalization interview on April 14 in Colchester, Vermont.

In court papers, Mahdawi’s attorneys alleged the interview was “a trap.” During the interview, an officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told Mahdawi he needed to check on some information and would return shortly, according to the filing. Instead, masked ICE agents entered the room and shackled Mahdawi shortly afterward, the filing stated.

The Trump administration justified Mahdawi’s arrest on Secretary of State Marco Rubio's determination that the student's presence in the United States “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” according to court filings.

The government used the same argument in its case against Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and student protest leader who was detained on March 8 and quickly transferred to Louisiana, where he is currently being held.

Mahdawi, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, received a document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stating Rubio made his decision because Mahdawi, “through his leadership and involvement in disruptive protests at Columbia University, has engaged in antisemitic conduct through leading pro-Palestinian protests and calling for Israel's destruction,” according to court filings.

Crawford, however, ruled Mahdawi’s speech was protected under the First Amendment. The judge said Mahdawi’s attorneys submitted enough evidence to raise concerns that the federal government was wrongly retaliating against Mahdawi for his protected speech.

“Immigration detention cannot be motivated by a punitive purpose,” Crawford wrote in his order. “Nor can it be motivated by the desire to deter others from speaking.”

Mahdawi is among a number of pro-Palestinian student protesters to be arrested by immigration officials, following similar arrests at Columbia and universities across the country. A Louisiana immigration judge ruled earlier this month that Khalil could be deported; Khalil’s attorneys continue to fight his case in federal court in New Jersey.

Crawford’s opinion drew parallels between the present and the Palmer Raids, from 1919 to 1920, when the Department of Justice under President Woodrow Wilson captured and deported hundreds of people suspected of anarchist or communist views. Similarly, Crawford wrote, during the McCarthy era, thousands of noncitizens were targeted for deportation for their political views.

Mahdawi was a fixture of pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia, often holding a megaphone and sharing stories of his relatives and friends being shot by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. As some other pro-Palestinian student protesters took a more radical approach, his classmates and associates say he worked to find a middle ground between Israeli and Palestinian students on campus.

In their arguments justifying Mahdawi's detention, the federal government pointed to alleged incidents it said occurred as far back as a decade ago. In the summer of 2015, a gun shop owner in Windsor, Vermont, told local police officers that Mahdawi visited his store twice, and allegedly told the store owner, "I like to kill Jews," according to a court filing by the Trump administration.

In an interview with an FBI agency in November 2015, Mahdawi confirmed he visited the gun shop but said he never discussed buying weapons or killing Jews, according to the court filings. He said he visited the gun shop to learn whether he had to register a shotgun his wife gifted him.

Crawford, in concluding that Mahdawi presented no danger to others, cited the FBI’s concluding its investigation without taking further action.

"Had the statements attributed to Mr. Mahdawi been true, they would have resulted in some official response,” Crawford said.

The federal government also referenced a drug charge from 2019 that was later expunged and a 2018 marital dispute, for which there were no charges.

McLaughlin, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, added in a statement: “It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, or harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.” Rubio's office declined comment.

Mahdawi's attorneys submitted more than 125 letters in his support from professors, neighbors, fellow students and other people who knew him well. Crawford said "a striking number" came from Jewish colleagues and professors involved in studying the history and culture of Israel and Judaism.

"People who have come to know Mr. Mahdawi … describe him as a peaceful figure who seeks consensus in a highly charged political environment,” Crawford said. “But, even if he were a firebrand, his conduct is protected by the First Amendment.”

Columbia University spokesperson Millie Wert said in a statement following Mahdawi's release, “As we have said, every individual in this country, citizen and non-citizen alike, deserves the due process rights afforded them by law.”

Mahdawi had been detained in the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Vermont.

This article was updated with additional comment.