A Palestinian man who headed protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University was arrested on Monday in an immigration office in Vermont in which he had expected that he would be interviewed about the completion of his US citizenship, his lawyers said.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal constant resident who has held a Green Card since 2015, was in the office of the US citizenship and the immigration service in colchester, Vt.
The lawyers said they do not know where he is and submitted a petition to a federal court that requested an order that prevents the government from removing it from the state or country.
“The Trump government has in direct retribution for his lawyer on behalf of the Palestinians and because of his identity as a Palestinian in direct retribution. His detention is an attempt to silence those who speak against the atrocities in Gaza,” said Attorney Luna Droubi in an e -mail.
After the court was submitted, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in West Bank and moved to the USA in 2014.
He recently completed course work in Columbia in New York and should be completed in May before starting a master’s degree there in autumn.
The petition describes him as a committed Buddhist who believes in “non -violence and empathy as the central principle of his religion”.
Arrested ‘immoral, inhuman and illegal’
As a student, Mahdawi was a pronounced critic of the military campaign of Israel in Gaza and organized campus protests until March 2024.
He was a co -founder of the Palestinian Student Association in Columbia with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent inhabitant of the United States and doctoral students, who was recently arrested by ICE.
Khalil was the first person who was arrested against students under the promised procedure by President Donald Trump who had joined the campus protests against the war in Gaza.
On Friday, an immigration judge in Louisiana decided that Khalil can be deported as a national security risk.
Christopher Helali, a friend of Mahdawi who lives in Vermont, was present outside the immigration office when Mahdawi was recorded by a video by Mahdawi, which was led by authorities.
In the video that Helali published on social media on Monday, Mahdawi shows that he gives a sign of peace with his hands and is led into a car.
Helali described Mahdawi as a peaceful demonstrator who worked on promoting the dialogue about the struggle of the Palestinians in his homeland.
Helali said he and Mahdawi were aware that Mahdawi could be arrested today and that his friend still progressed the appointment.
“And rightly he was nervous for what was going on around him. But he was very determined to come to this interview and come today because he did nothing wrong and was a lawyer or a short citizen,” said Helali.
Vermont’s congress delegation gave a statement in which Mahdawi’s arrest was convicted, and said that instead of taking one of the last steps in his citizenship process, he was tied up by armed faces with handcuffs.
“This is immoral, inhuman and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal inhabitant of the United States, must be carried out by law and will be released immediately from the detention,” says Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint.
