Mohsen Mahdawi, the organizer of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University last year, was detained by immigration officials on Monday after arriving at an appointment in Vermont that he believed was a step towards becoming a U.S. citizen, his lawyers said.
Hours later, Mahdawi’s mother, older sister, and lawyers were scrambling to find him after his abrupt detention at an immigration center in Colchester, Vermont. His lawyers requested a temporary restraining order to prevent federal officials from transferring him to a more conservative jurisdiction, a tactic used in the detention and attempted deportation of at least four other university student protesters.
A federal judge in Vermont, William Sessions, quickly granted that request, ordering that Mahdawi, a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, not be expelled from the United States or transferred out of Vermont until he orders otherwise. His lawyers said that by Monday afternoon, they had confirmed he was still in Vermont.
“This is their MO,” said Luna Droubi, Mahdawi’s lawyer, using an abbreviation for modus operandi. “They just keep hiding the individual to the point where his lawyers can’t figure out or identify where to file the lawsuit. And then, you know, we operate blindly, and they have all the information, and still they charge us with trying to file the lawsuit in the right jurisdiction.”
Mahdawi, a green card holder for 10 years, is the latest Palestinian student caught in the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign students participating in pro-Palestinian organizing activities on American university campuses.
Born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, Mahdawi lived there until he moved to the United States in 2014, according to a petition filed by his lawyers on Monday, demanding his immediate release. The Intercept was the first media outlet to report his detention.
He is completing his undergraduate studies in philosophy at Columbia’s School of General Studies and was planning to enroll in the fall as a master’s student in the school of international affairs at the institution.
Representatives from Columbia declined to comment, citing federal student privacy regulations.
Mahdawi has not been charged with any crime. According to his lawyers, the Trump administration appears to be seeking his expulsion from the country under the same legal provision it used to detain another recent Palestinian student from Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil, claiming that his presence poses a threat to U.S. foreign policy and national security interests. Immigration officials have argued that pro-Palestinian protesters have allowed the spread of anti-Semitism, but have not provided evidence to substantiate the claim.
After Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Mahdawi, around 35 years old, co-founded Dar: the Palestinian Student Society at Columbia University with Khalil to “celebrate Palestinian culture, history, and identity,” according to his lawyers’ petition. He also helped found Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a broader coalition that led many pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, pressuring the university to disassociate from Israel.
But Mahdawi stepped back from the student organization in March 2024, before the establishment of camps on campus and the occupation of a campus building, Hamilton Hall. In interviews he gave at the time, he said that this was partly due to his migrant status and his beliefs as a practicing Buddhist. For two years, he was president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association.
He publicly spoke about his childhood experience of witnessing his best friend being killed by an Israeli soldier, something he recounted during an interview on 60 Minutes in December 2023. But he also said that he wished for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Now my motivation comes from love, not from anger or hatred,” he said in an interview.
Like Khalil, several hardline pro-Israel groups have been mobilizing on the internet calling for Mahdawi’s detention and deportation since President Trump’s return to the White House.
Betar USA, one of these groups, posted on X on January 30 that “visa holder Mohsen Mahdawi is on our deportation list.” In March, they reiterated this by posting “Mohsen Mahdawi is next and is also on the deportation list.”
He was also profiled by Canary Mission, another group that names students and calls for action against those they claim are pro-Hamas.
On Monday morning, Mahdawi attended an interview that he was told was related to his naturalization. Instead, immigration officials, some with covered faces, handcuffed Mahdawi and detained him, according to Vermont’s two senators, independent Bernie Sanders and Democrat Peter Welch, and Representative Becca Balint.
Mahdawi, whose permanent residence is in White River Junction, Vermont, had sought help from lawmakers before his appointment, fearing the worst.
The lawmakers denounced his detention and demanded his release.
“This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal,” the three lawmakers said in a statement. “Mahdawi, a legal resident in the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released.”
Mikey Baratz, a friend of Mahdawi, described him as a deeply empathetic person and said that, fundamentally, Mahdawi believed that all human beings deserved to be treated with dignity. Mahdawi contacted Baratz about six months ago because he wanted to meet Israeli students at Columbia; Baratz is Jewish and was born and raised in Israel until he left at the age of 12.
They spent hours talking about their lives and found surprising points in common. Baratz, who graduated from Columbia in December with a master’s degree in international security policy, recently applied for a job at The New York Times.
“This is a Palestinian. I’m Israeli. Our peoples are at war,” said Baratz, 31. “And his willingness to really listen and actively learn and understand the Israeli experience. I mean, I’ve never met anyone who was so willing to accept feedback so quickly.”
Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting.
Sharon Otterman is a reporter for The Times covering higher education, public health, and other issues facing New York City.
Ana Ley is a reporter for The Times covering migration in New York City.
