A Palestinian migrant who led university protests for the destruction of Israel has been freed from a deportation jail at the direction of a Vermont federal judge.
Mohsen Mahdawi was being held in Vermont before his planned deportation, but he was released by Judge Geoffrey Crawford, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2017.
The Wednesday release came one day after Vermont’s Senate passed a resolution by 24 to 5 urging the release of Mahdawi. All five no votes came from the Senate’s GOP minority.
Once released at the courthouse, Madhawi flashed victory signs while wearing a Palestinian scarf associated with war against Jews. He told supporters and the media that his detention was caused by his advocacy against Israel.
“They arrested me. What’s the reason? Because I raised my voice, and I said no to war, yes to peace,” Mr. Mahdawi said, according to the New York Times. “Because I said, ‘Enough is enough. Killing more than 50,000 Palestinians is more than enough.’ ”
Mahdawi did not mention the Palestinian murder campaign on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and took 200 hostages, including many children and families. The murders and rapes prompted mass celebrations in the Gaza district — and mass destruction of Gaza by a slow-motion Israel counterattack.
The counterattack may force the transfer of Gaza’s Islamic population to another location.
The chief spokeswoman at the Department of Homeland Security promised to complete the deportation process:
President Donald Trump’s poll ratings on migration policy have stayed high, partly because of the Democrats’ pro-migration radicalism and massive resistance to legal deportations.
Canary Mission, a website that tracks the activities of anti-Jewish activists, reported:
On November 15, 2023, Mahdawi spoke at an anti-Israel rally titled: “All Out for Gaza at Columbia University,” where he led the crowd in chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
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On December 5, 2023, Mahdawi posted photos of himself speaking at a November 14, 2023 rally organized by DAR [Palestinian Student Society] at Columbia and held on the Columbia campus. He wrote on his post: “We come here today to stand tall, to raise our voices, and to lift our spirits…chanting for humanity: Free, free Palestine!”
Madhawi’s pending deportation implements Trump’s policy of excluding visitors or migrants who “espouse hateful ideology.” The policy was set by Trump’s January 20 Executive Order, which says:
It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.
Madhawi was arrested for deportation when he went to an interview to convert his green card into citizenship.
The deportation was directed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who argued that his political campaigning “could undermine the Middle East peace process by reinforcing antisemitic sentiment.”
The New York Times reported:
Mr. Mahdawi, who was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank in September 1990, has lived in the United States since 2014. He enrolled at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 2018 to study computer science before transferring three years later to Columbia, where he began to study philosophy.
In the fall of 2023, he became a leader of the student movement on campus, founding a Palestinian Student Union with Mr. [Mahmoud] Khalil [who is also being deported].
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Last week, an immigration judge found that Mr. Rubio’s memo alone allowed the Trump administration to meet the burden of proof necessary for deporting Mr. Khalil, whom the secretary accused of undermining the fight against antisemitism. The judge’s decision affirmed, for the time being, Mr. Rubio’s power to pick and choose which noncitizens — even those with legal residency — can be deported.
It is not clear who has beenpaying for Mohsen’s living and tuition costs during the last ten years.
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