Immigration agents obtained an anti-Israel protester from Columbia University while in an appointment to obtain their US citizenship in Vermont on Monday.
The Palestinian student Mohsen Madawi, who comes from the West Bank, was arrested in an office of citizenship and immigration services in the United States (USCIS) in Burlington after spending 10 years in the United States and disturbing his green card, according to the interception.
Now it seems, however, that the Trump administration seeks to shorten Madawi’s time in the United States after it helped lead the protests against Israel on the Morningsis Heights Campus of Columbia until last spring.
The video images published in X on Monday seemed to show Mahdawi being escorted with his hands chained in front of him and surrounded by federal agents, which placed him in an unmarked vehicle.
“He is the son of a death sentence,” said Mahdawi, who previously directed the Union of Palestinian Students of Columbia, said, according to the intersection.
“Because my people are being unjustly murdered in an indissimined way.”
Mahdawi “was illegal today for any other reason than his Palestinian identity,” said his lawyer, Luna Droubi, to The Outlet.
“He arrived in this country with the hope of being free to talk about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for that speech,” he added.
Columbia declined to comment, citing his obligations of the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Law (Ferpa).
Neinder DHS or the State Department responded to comments requests.
Mahdawi, who was a friend of the Detany Anti-Israel Columbia Mahmoud Khalil, anticipated becoming an objective of the massive deportation effort of the Trump administration and hides, as if he were to university to get help to find shelter, to the intersection.
But Columbia did not respond to his request, he said.
While Mahdawi was hidden, Uscis notified him that they had transferred their citizenship interview, which expected it to happen in January or December, and worried that it would be part of a configuration.
Mahdawi was caught when he appeared to the appointment this week, the intersection reported.
The FBI also visited Mahdawi at the end of last year, but did not take any measure against him.
“This is the result,” Mahdawi said, according to the exit. “I will live or imprison or kill him for the apartheid system.”
Mahdawi appeared in “60 minutes” in December 2023, when he criticized the response of the then president of Columbia, Minouche Shafik, to Hamas attack on October 7 to Israel for not recognizing the suffering of the Palestinians, according to the intersection.
“That is why they are now crushing universities, it’s not just about Palestine,” he said.
“People ask me why I would do it because to become a citizen of a country that commits genocide. I have faith in the people who live in this country. The government is not people.”
Vermont’s independent senator Bernie Sanders criticized Mahdawi’s trial.
“Mahsen Mahdawi by White River Junction, Vermont was illegally arrested for the duration of ice, which was supposed to be the final step in its citizenship process,” wrote a job a joint statement of other state legislators, Senator Peter Welch and the Becca Balint representative.
“Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the USA, must receive due process under the law and immediately liberated from detention.”