Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi is free on bail after a federal judge in Vermont ordered his release.
It’s the first order mandating the release of a student detained by the Trump administration. The New York Times called his release “a defeat” for the administration’s “widening crackdown against student protesters.”
“The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” said Judge Geoffrey Crawford at an April 30 hearing. “Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released.”
Crawford also compared Trump’s crackdown to the Red Scare and said that period of history wasn’t one that people should be proud of.
“For anybody who is doubting justice, this is a light of hope and faith in the justice system in America,” Mahdawi told a crowd outside the courthouse after his release. “We are witnessing the fight for justice in America, which means a true democracy, and the fight for justice for Palestinians, which means that both liberation are interconnected, because no one of us is free unless we all are.”
“I am saying it clear and loud,” he added. “To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”
“Today’s victory cannot be overstated. It is a victory for Mohsen who gets to walk free today out of this court,” said Shezza Abboushi Dallal, one of Mahdawi’s lawyers. “And it is also a victory for everyone else in this country invested in the very ability to dissent, who want to be able to speak out for the causes that they feel a moral imperative to lend their voices to and want to do that without fear that they will be abducted by masked men.”
Mahdawi, a permanent U.S. resident and green card holder for the past decade, was arrested by immigration officials on April 14 during his naturalization interview to become a United States citizen.
According to a recent legal brief from Mahdawi’s attorneys, the citizenship appointment had been a trap, as ICE agents intended to ambush the Columbia student and send him to a detention facility in Louisiana, where the Trump administration is holding Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.
A judge blocked Trump from transferring Mahdawi out Vermont before agents could transport him.
A court filing submitted in the case by the Justice Department included a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio claiming that Mahdawi’s presence in the United States could “potentially undermine” the Middle East peace process.
Earlier this month, Vermont Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) visited Mahdawi at the ICE detention center where he was being held.
“I am centered, I am clear, I am grounded, and I don’t want you to worry about me,” Mahdawi told Welch. “I want you to continue working for the democracy of this country and for humanity. The war must stop.”
This is encouraging. A judge’s order actually being carried out!
The US Constitution gives student visa holders, green card holders or permanent residents the right to due process along with most of the rights that US citizens are entitled to under The Constitution. However;
There is no constitutional right to a student visa, a green card or permanent residency.
They can be revoked at any time should the Immigration Officials or the Secretary of State find that the visa application contained lies, omitted information about association with other governments or ngo’s they worked for or associated with. It does not matter wether any particular laws were broken or not.
That said, in the case of Mr, Dawhawi apparently finds no irony in his defiant and angry defense of his supposed ‘right’ to publicly promote a US designated terrorist organization in Hamas which openly and publicly swears allegiance to, NOT the Palestinian people’s , but to the murderous tyrant jihadist ayatollah regime in tehran with the blood of 1000s of US military on their hands over decades, plan disruptive takeovers of private property, false imprisonment of workers and deprivation of the rights of other people’s to access the facilities they they have paid for the legal right to use. Were he in either the Islamic Regime or under the rule of Hamas in Gaza he surely is aware he would have been at the least tortured, imprisoned and probably executed.
There is no constitutional right to a student visa, a green card or permanent residency . All can be revoked if the Immigration Authority or the Executive finds there were lies or omissions on the visa application concerning work for or association with other governmentS or other NGO’s required to be disclosed. The Executive also has the authority to declare non citizens as detrimental to US foreign policy goals which will likely be decided by SCOTUS .
The irony? Violently and/or illegally protesting, falsely imprisoning, and shouting support for Hamas, a designated terrorist org. that has openly and publicly sworn allegiance to the murderous tyrant jihadist ayatollah regime in Tehran which has the blood of 1000s of US servicemen on its hands would surely have beaten, tortured, jailed and likely executed him rather then present his case to due process