New court filings detail Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi's ICE arrest: 'It was a trap'

Attorneys for Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi say he was trapped by immigration officials during a routine check-in and then arrested last week, according to new filings in his case.

It happened last Monday when Mahdawi, a legal permanent U.S. resident of over 10 years, appeared at a naturalization interview in Colchester, Vermont, the filing says.

During the interview, an officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told Mahdawi that he needed to “check” on some information and that he’d be right back, according to the court papers. Masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents then entered the room and shackled Mahdawi, the filing said.

“It was a trap,” Mahdawi’s attorneys said in the court document, which was a request for his release filed on Tuesday.

His arrest was the latest in a series of detentions by federal immigration authorities of pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia and at other university campuses across the country. Earlier this month, a Louisiana judge ruled that Mahmoud Khalil, another Columbia protester, could be deported.

During Mahdawi's arrest he was separated from his immigration attorney and placed into a car, according to the filing, before the federal government tried to quickly transfer him to Louisiana – where Khalil is currently being held in an ICE detention center.

Mahdawi's lawyers are fighting for his release in federal court. On Wednesday, Geoffrey Crawford, a U.S. district judge in Vermont, granted a 90-day extension of a temporary restraining order that blocks the Trump administration from deporting Mahdawi or relocating him out of Vermont, according to his attorneys. Another hearing is scheduled in his case for next Wednesday.

Mahdawi, a Palestinian born in the West Bank, was scheduled to graduate in May from Columbia University, where he studied philosophy.

He was a fixture of pro-Palestinian student protests on Columbia’s campus, where he often appeared behind a megaphone sharing stories about his relatives and friends being shot by Israeli soldiers. But Mahdawi’s associates say while some student protesters took a more radical approach, he sought to find a middle ground. Last fall, he convened a weekly group of Israeli and Palestinian students to discuss the long-simmering conflict abroad.

“When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, without offering further explanation. An ICE spokesperson referred questions to the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose spokespeople have not responded.

According to the court papers, Mahdawi received a document from DHS saying he’s being targeted for deportation because Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined his presence in the United States “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” The government used the same argument in its case against Khalil.

The document stated 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.”

Mahdawi’s attorneys have argued in court papers that he’s being unfairly targeted for his speech, and have requested the judge release him on bail to “slow the grave threat to free speech posed by his continued detainment.”

Mahdawi is currently being detained in the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Vermont.