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The Guardian
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Mohsen Mahdawi, released from Ice custody, graduates from Columbia
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, released just over two weeks ago from federal detention, crossed the graduation stage on Monday to cheers from his fellow graduates. The Palestinian activist was arrested by immigration authorities in Colchester, Vermont, while attending a naturalization interview. He was detained and ordered to be deported by the Trump administration on 14 April despite not being charged with a crime. Several students cheered for Mahdawi, 34, who was draped in a keffiyeh as he walked across the stage. He blew a kiss and bowed, one video showed. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia's gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody. 'It's very mixed emotions,' Mahdawi told the Associated Press. 'The Trump administration wanted to rob me of this opportunity. They wanted me to be in a prison, in prison clothes, to not have education and to not have joy or celebration.' He is one of several international students who have been detained in recent months for their advocacy on behalf of Palestinians. The Trump administration is attempting to deport them using an obscure statute that gives the secretary of state the right to revoke the legal status of people in the country deemed a threat to foreign policy. Mahdawi was released two weeks later by a judge, who likened the government's actions to McCarthyist repression. Federal officials have not accused Mahdawi of committing a crime, but argued that he and other student activists should be deported for beliefs that may undermine US foreign policy. For Mahdawi, who earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Columbia's School of General Studies, the graduation marked a bittersweet return to a university that he says has betrayed him and other students. 'The senior administration is selling the soul of this university to the Trump administration, participating in the destruction and the degradation of our democracy,' Mahdawi said. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion He pointed to Columbia's decision to acquiesce to the Trump administration's demands – including placing its Middle Eastern studies department under new leadership – as well as its failure to speak out against his and Khalil's arrest. Khalil would have received his diploma from a Columbia master's program in international studies later this week. He remains jailed in Louisiana as he awaits a decision from a federal judge about his possible release. As he prepares for a lengthy legal battle, Mahdawi faces his own uncertain future. He was previously admitted to a master's degree program at Columbia, where he planned to study 'peacekeeping and conflict resolution' in the fall. But he is reconsidering his options after learning this month that he would not receive financial aid. For now, he said, he would continue to advocate for the Palestinian cause, buoyed by the support he says he has received from the larger Columbia community. 'When I went on the stage, the message was very clear and loud: they are cheering up for the idea of justice, for the idea of peace, for the idea of equality, for the idea of humanity, and nothing will stop us from continuing to do that. Not the Trump administration nor Columbia University,' he said.
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Palestinian activist graduates after being released by ICE
National Palestinian activist graduates after being released by ICE May 19, 2025 | 10:18 PM GMT Columbia student activist Mohsen Mahdawi, who was detained by ICE and later released from federal custody, graduated from Columbia on May 19.
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia to cheers
NEW YORK — Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi strode across the graduation stage at Columbia University on Monday morning, savoring a moment the Trump administration had fought to make impossible. Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia's gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil , who remains in federal custody.
Associated Press
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia to cheers
NEW YORK (AP) — Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi strode across the graduation stage at Columbia University on Monday morning, savoring a moment the Trump administration had fought to make impossible. Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia's gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody. 'It's very mixed emotions,' Mahdawi told The Associated Press. 'The Trump administration wanted to rob me of this opportunity. They wanted me to be in a prison, in prison clothes, to not have education and to not have joy or celebration.' Mahdawi, a 34-year-old legal resident of the U.S., was detained during an April 14 citizenship interview in Vermont, part of the widening federal crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists. He was released two weeks later by a judge, who likened the government's actions to McCarthyist repression. Federal officials have not accused Mahdawi of committing a crime, but argued that he and other student activists should be deported for beliefs that may undermine U.S. foreign policy. For Mahdawi, who earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Columbia's School of General Studies, the graduation marked a bittersweet return to a university that he says has betrayed him and other students. 'The senior administration is selling the soul of this university to the Trump administration, participating in the destruction and the degradation of our democracy,' Mahdawi said. He pointed to Columbia's decision to acquiesce to the Trump administration's demands — including placing its Middle Eastern studies department under new leadership — as well as its failure to speak out against his and Khalil's arrest. He said Columbia's leadership had denied his pleas for protection prior to his arrest, then ignored his attorney's request for a letter supporting his release from jail. A spokesperson for Columbia University did not return an emailed inquiry. Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests, led a Buddhist association and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Khalil. Khalil would have received his diploma from a Columbia master's program in international studies later this week. He remains jailed in Louisiana as he awaits a decision from a federal judge about his possible release. As he prepares for a lengthy legal battle, Mahdawi faces his own uncertain future. He was previously admitted to a master's degree program at Columbia, where he planned to study 'peacekeeping and conflict resolution' in the fall. But he is reconsidering his options after learning this month that he would not receive financial aid. For now, he said, he would continue to advocate for the Palestinian cause, buoyed by the support he says he has received from the larger Columbia community. 'When I went on the stage, the message was very clear and loud: They are cheering up for the idea of justice, for the idea of peace, for the idea of equality, for the idea of humanity, and nothing will stop us from continuing to do that. Not the Trump administration nor Columbia University,' he said. The School of General Studies graduation comes two days before Columbia's university-wide commencement, as colleges across the country are bracing for possible disruptions. Last week, New York University announced it would withhold the diploma of a student speaker who criticized Israel's attacks on Palestinians in his graduation speech.
Arab News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence
NEW YORK: A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his US citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. On Friday, an appeals court in New York denied the government's request to halt that order, saying the Trump administration's jurisdictional arguments were unlikely to succeed and that it hadn't shown that Mahdawi's release has caused irreparable harm. 'Individual liberty substantially outweighs the government's weak assertions of administrative and logistical costs,' wrote the three-judge panel at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge who released him on bail ruled that he has raised a 'substantial claim' that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees. Columbia University Faces Backlash Over Palestinian Activist's Arrest Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student activist, was arrested just as he was about to finalize his U.S. citizenship. He has accused Columbia University of inciting violence against students and undermining… — Political Maverick (@PoliticalMav) May 9, 2025 Mahdawi spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with campus security guards inside the university's main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody, police said. Mahdawi said instead of being a 'beacon of hope,' the university is inciting violence against students. 'Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,' Mahdawi said in the interview. 'They are supporting the initiatives and the agenda of the Trump administration, and they are punishing and torturing their students.' A spokesperson for Columbia University, which in March announced sweeping policy changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding, declined to comment Thursday beyond the response of the school's acting president to Wednesday's protests. The acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then asked police in 'to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,' she said in a statement Wednesday evening, calling the protest actions 'outrageous' and a disruption to students for final exams. Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the US and graduate student who was arrested in March. On April 14, Mahdawi had taken a written citizenship test, answered verbal questions and signed a document about the pledge of allegiance at an immigration office in Colchester when his interviewer left the room. Masked and armed agents then entered and arrested him, he said. Though he had suspected a trap, the moment was still shocking, he said, triggering a cascade of contrasting emotions. 'Light and darkness, cold and hot. Having rights or not having rights at all,' he said. Immigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Mahdawi was among the first to win release from custody after challenging his arrest. In another case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, upholding an order to transfer her from a Louisiana detention center back to New England to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released. Mahdawi said his message to the Turkish student and others was 'stay positive and don't let this injustice shake your belief in the inevitability of justice.' 'People are working hard. Communities are mobilizing,' he said. 'The justice system has signaled to America with my case, and with Rumeysa's yesterday with the Second Circuit, that justice is functioning and checks and balances is still in function.' Mahdawi's release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month. He said he plans to do so, though he believes the administration has turned its back on him and rejected the work of a student diplomacy council he served on alongside Jewish, Israeli and Lebanese students. 'I plan to attend the graduation because it is a message,' he said. 'This is a message that education is hope, education is light, and there is no power in the world that should take that away from us.'
