Federal judge in Vermont orders release of Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi

A federal judge in Vermont ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green-card holder and student at Columbia University who was detained and ordered deported by the Trump administration on 14 April despite not being charged with a crime.

“The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” said Geoffrey Crawford, a US district judge, at a hearing Wednesday, according to ABC News. “Mr Mahdawi, I will order you released.”

Crawford ordered that Mahdawi be released from prison on bail, pending the resolution of his case in federal court.

Mahdawi walked out of immigration detention on Wednesday morning, greeting supporters and thanking them for their support.

“For anybody who is doubting justice, this is a light of hope and faith in the justice system in America,” he said in a brief address. “We are witnessing the fight for justice in America, which means a true democracy, and the fight for justice for Palestinians, which means that both liberation are interconnected, because no one of us is free unless we all are.”

Shezza Abboushi Dallal, one of Mahdawi’s attorneys said outside the courtroom on Wednesday that “today’s victory cannot be overstated”.

“The court’s order to free Mohsen today is a victory for Mohsen, in his just pursuit of continued advocacy for Palestinian lives, and it is a victory for all people in this country invested in their ability to dissent and speak and protest for causes they are morally drawn to,” Abboushi Dallal said. “We will continue our legal battle for Mohsen until his constitutional rights are fully vindicated.”

Mahdawi was arrested by Ice in Colchester, Vermont, while attending a naturalization interview.

He is one of a number of international students who has 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.

Attorneys for Mahdawi, a lawful permanent US resident, argued that he was being unlawfully detained in “retaliation for his speech advocating for Palestinian human rights” and say that it is “part of a policy intended to silence and chill the speech of those who advocate for Palestinian human rights”.

The Trump administration is seeking to deport 34-year-old Mahdawi, claiming that his presence and activities in the US “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest”.

In new court filings submitted Monday, the justice department included a two-page letter from Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, saying that Mahdawi’s activities and presence in the US “undermines US policy to combat antisemitism” according to NPR, and that his activities could “potentially undermine the peace process underway in the Middle East.”

This week, the Vermont Senate voted to condemn “the manner and circumstances” of Mahdawi’s arrest, and called for his immediate release, as his case proceeds in federal court. The Senate also emphasized that Mahdawi should “be afforded due process” according to the VTDigger.

A final vote on the resolution is scheduled for Wednesday and is expected to pass.

Several Democratic members of Congress – joined by Senator Bernie Sanders – rallied outside of the state department this week, demanding Mahdawi’s release.

“He has used his voice to advocate for peace, justice and dignity for Palestinians and Israelies” Sanders said. “Not only was this action cruel and inhumane, most importantly, it was illegal, it was unconstitutional.”

Mahdawi immigrated to the US over a decade ago and began attending Columbia University in 2021. According to his attorneys, last year, as a student at Columbia, he was “an outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and an activist and organizer in student protests on Columbia’s campus until March of 2024, after which he took a step back and has not been involved in organizing”.

Mahdawi, who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, spoke with NPR this week from the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St Albans, Vermont, where he remains in custody.

“I’m centered, internally I am at peace,” Mahdawi told NPR. “While I still know deeply that this is a level of injustice that I am facing, I have faith. I have faith that justice will prevail.”

Also this week, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that a lawsuit filed by Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who is also challenging his detention and deportation order, can proceed.