Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi released from ICE detention

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian Columbia student who had been detained by immigration authorities when he went to his U.S. citizenship interview, has been released after a federal judge’s order in Vermont on Wednesday.

Mahdawi was taken into custody on April 16. A judge later issued an order barring the government from removing him from the state or country. 

“Yes you might think I am free, but my freedom is interlinked with the freedom of many other students,” Mahdawi said outside the courthouse in Burlington, Vermont, shortly after being released. 

Mahdawi’s attorneys argued that the Trump administration is seeking to deport Mahdawi because he helped lead pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia University’s campus in the early months of the Israel-Hamas war, in violation of his First Amendment rights. 

Mahdawi has pushed back against allegations of antisemitism in the Columbia protests. In an interview with CBS News a day before his arrest, Mahdawi said, “I want people to know that my compassion extended beyond the Palestinian people. My compassion is also for the Jewish people and for the Israelis as well.” 

He also said he took a step back from the protests before students formed encampments on Columbia’s campus and took over a school building last year.

contributed to this report.