Released Palestinian student to help launch immigrant legal aid initiative in Vermont
Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led protests against Israel's war in Gaza at Columbia University, spent 16 days in a state prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge ruled that he has raised a 'substantial claim' that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.
Immigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration. Many of them participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians. Mahdawi was among the first to win his freedom after challenging his arrest.
'Justice is inevitable. We will not fear anyone because our fight is a fight for love, a fight for democracy, a fight for humanity,' Mahdawi told supporters outside the courthouse last week.
He will join Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale and community advocates at the Statehouse to announce the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund. The group, which also includes lawyers and philanthropists, says the goal is to improve access to legal advice for immigrants and build long-term infrastructure within the justice system as it pertains to immigration law.
Members of Vermont's congressional delegation have spoken up on Mahdawi's behalf, as have state politicians. Vermont's House and Senate passed resolutions condemning the circumstances of his detention and advocating for his release and due process rights.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott has said there is no justification for the manner in which Mahdawi was arrested, at an immigration office in Colchester.
'Law enforcement officers in this country should not operate in the shadows or hide behind masks,' the governor said the next day. 'The power of the executive branch of the federal government is immense, but it is not infinite, and it is not absolute.'
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.
His 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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
27 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
New York man charged over explosives on subway tracks, rooftops
A New York man has been charged with making improvised explosive devices and throwing one onto subway tracks in New York City, US authorities said Tuesday. Michael Gann, 55, allegedly manufactured at least seven explosive devices using chemicals ordered online and stored five devices and shotgun shells on apartment building rooftops in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Authorities said Gann threw one IED onto subway tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge and was arrested with a seventh device on his person early June. 'As alleged, Michael Gann built explosive devices, stored them on a rooftop in SoHo, and threw one onto the subway tracks -- putting countless lives at risk,' said US Attorney Jay Clayton. 'Thanks to swift work by our law enforcement partners, no one was harmed.' According to prosecutors, Gann ordered approximately two pounds of potassium perchlorate and one pound of aluminum powder -- precursor chemicals to explosives -- online in May, along with over 200 cardboard tubes and 50 feet of fuses. One of the devices placed on the roof of a SoHo building 'contained approximately 30 grams of explosive powder -- approximately 600 times the legal limit for consumer fireworks,' the attorney's office said. On or about June 5, just hours before his arrest while carrying an IED, he posted to Instagram: 'Who wants me to go out to play like no tomorrow?' Before making the IEDs, prosecutors said, Gann posted a message on X on March 27 tagging the POTUS account, the official handle for the president of the United States. He wrote: 'I'm thinking just now here in NYC that it's too bad that the wall wasn't built before the National Guard would have to come here for the Protests and Riotation or would you just drop a bomb on this place while and because they seem to be coming and coming?' Between May and June 2025, Gann also searched online for information on bomb-making, firearms, and 3D-printed guns, as well as background checks for firearm purchases, according to the indictment. Gann, a resident of New York City's Inwood neighborhood, faces charges of attempted destruction of property by explosives, transportation of explosive materials and unlawful possession of destructive devices. The most serious charge carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and maximum of 20 years.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Republicans seek to rename opera house after US First Lady Melania Trump
Republicans in the US House of Representatives sought Tuesday to rename the opera house in Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after First Lady Melania Trump. The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted to advance language that would condition funding for Washington's premier cultural institution on the name change as it debated the 2026 budget. Idaho congressman Mike Simpson, who introduced an amendment to call the venue the 'First Lady Melania Trump Opera House,' said it was an 'excellent way to recognize her support and commitment to promoting the arts.' The move marked the latest front in President Donald Trump's hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center, after he fired board members in February and appointed himself chairman, and replaced its longtime president with ally Richard Grenell. Trump, who accused the institution of being too 'woke,' also picked White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Second Lady Usha Vance to serve as trustees. The president was met with cheers and boos at the center in June as he attended an opening night performance of hit musical 'Les Miserables.' Republicans have been keen to flatter Trump and help the president cement his legacy in his second term, including by introducing legislation to rename the capital region's Dulles International Airport after him. There have also been efforts in Congress to replace Benjamin Franklin with Trump on the $100 bill, to carve Trump's likeness on the iconic Mount Rushmore, to name a national holiday after him and to reimagine Washington's Metro train service as the Trump Train. The Kennedy Center change was added to legislation principally providing 2026 funding for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency. But the 2,364-seat theater -- the second-largest at the Kennedy Center complex -- would only get its new designation if the change was approved by both chambers of Congress. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate and spending bills require 60 votes to pass, meaning Democrats may be able to strip the name change out of the text before any final vote.
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Columbia University punishes 80 students over anti-Israel protests
Columbia University said Tuesday it has issued various punishments, including expulsions and degree revocations, against various students involved in anti-Israel protests on campus. The sanctions, which a student group said targeted nearly 80 people, come as the New York institution negotiates with President Donald Trump's administration to restore $400 million in cut federal funding. Trump has applied intense pressure on the prestigious university and others, accusing them of failing to address alleged anti-Semitism amid nationwide protests last year against Israel's war in Gaza. Columbia, which was the epicenter of the campus protests, has agreed to implement a series of policy reforms in an attempt to regain the federal funding, sparking anger from many students. Fellow Ivy League institution Harvard has also been targeted with billions in funding cuts, but is fighting the pressure campaign in court. The latest sanctions by Columbia stem from a library sit-in this past May, as well as an encampment set up during alumni weekend in spring 2024, the university said in a statement. The library protest disrupted hundreds of students during an exam study period, it said, with punishments including 'probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions.' 'The University does not release individual disciplinary results of any student,' the statement said. It did not specify which punishments had been issued for the spring 2024 encampment, which occurred after larger protests -- including the occupation of an academic building -- but Columbia said it was 'the final set of findings from that period.' The student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which calls for the school to cut all financial ties with Israel, said the library-related sanctions 'hugely exceed precedent for teach-ins or non-Palestine-related building occupations.' 'We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,' the group said.
