Biography
Mohsen Mahdawi is a Palestinian student and activist who was a graduate student at Columbia University and had lived in the United States for around ten years while seeking citizenship. On April 14, 2025, Mahdawi was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a federal office in Colchester, Vermont when he arrived for what he had been told was a citizenship interview — only to be taken into custody and informed his immigration status was being revoked. Mahdawi was a prominent leader in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia and had received harassment online from right-wing groups prior to his detention.
Mahdawi’s legal team filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that his arrest was an unlawful attempt to punish him for his speech and activism. A federal judge later ordered his release on bail while the case continued, and critics of the Trump administration’s visa revocations have described his arrest as part of a crackdown targeting student speech without evidence of criminal conduct.
