By Luc Cohen
(Reuters) -Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was released from U.S. immigration custody on Wednesday, after a judge ruled he should be free on bail to challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
Mahdawi, born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, was arrested earlier this month upon arriving for an interview for his U.S. citizenship petition. A judge swiftly ordered President Donald Trump’s administration not to deport him from the United States or take him out of the state of Vermont.
After two weeks in detention, Mahdawi walked out of the federal courthouse in Burlington, Vermont, after U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered his release at a court hearing on Wednesday, according to his lawyers.
Mahdawi’s release marked a setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian foreign university students, though other students remain in jail.
“I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his cabinet, I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi said after he emerged from the courthouse, dozens of protesters waving Palestinian flags chanting “no fear” and “yes love.”
“This is a light of hope, hope and faith in the justice system in America,” Mahdawi said of Crawford’s decision to release him.
Trump administration officials have said student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Mahdawi’s privilege of studying in the United States on a green card should be taken away.
“When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “No judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”
Trump’s critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“Mahdawi is here in the United States legally and acted legally,” Vermont’s U.S. Congressional delegation of Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Peter Welch and Representative Becca Balint said in a statement. “The Trump Administration’s actions in this case – and in so many other cases of wrongfully detained, deported, and disappeared people – are shameful and immoral.”
Other protesters in similar circumstances include Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk. Both Khalil and Ozturk remain in custody and have not been charged with any crimes.
Mahdawi, a green card holder, has lived in Vermont for 10 years and is set to graduate from Columbia in May, according to his lawyers.
He has not been accused of any crime. Rather, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his pro-Palestinian activism could potentially undermine the Middle East peace process.
“They arrested me. What’s the reason? Because I raised my voice, and I said no to war, yes to peace,” Mahdawi said outside the courthouse. “Because I said, ‘Enough is enough. Killing more than 50,000 Palestinians is more than enough.’”
Mahdawi’s legal team said there was no evidence for Rubio’s claims.
“The government’s only supposed justification for holding him in prison is the content of his speech,” said Lia Ernst, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Luc Cohen in New York and Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.