CNN
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A Palestinian student at Columbia University who was arrested at an interview for US citizenship will remain detained in Vermont after a judge ordered his attorneys and the Department of Justice to provide additional briefing papers to the court.
Attorneys for Mohsen Mahdawi and the Department of Justice presented oral arguments at a hearing before US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford on Wednesday as a large crowd of supporters gathered outside the court in Burlington, Vermont.
Mahdawi, who was born in the West Bank and helped organize protests against the Israel-Hamas war on Columbia’s campus last year, is one of a handful of students who have been targeted for deportation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
He is the second Palestinian student at Columbia with a green card who has been detained by immigration authorities for removal. The other is Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident who was one of the lead negotiators of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia; he was arrested March 8 and is being held at a detention facility in Louisiana.
Federal immigration officers arrested Mahdawi, a legal permanent US resident for the past 10 years, on April 14 during an appointment he had previously scheduled to complete his citizenship application.
After Mahdawi took the citizenship oath and signed documents – which are some of the final steps to becoming a US citizen – armed and masked officers entered the office and arrested Mahdawi inside the US Citizenship and Immigration Services building, put him in handcuffs and shackles and drove him away, according to court documents and his attorneys.
Mahdawi has not been charged with a crime.
Mahdawi’s attorneys are seeking his release, arguing his detention is unconstitutional and retaliatory. The government has said Mahdawi should be deported under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the secretary of state broad authority to decide whether a person should be removed from the country.
According to court documents, the government is arguing Mahdawi’s detention is a “constitutionally valid aspect of the deportation process,” The Associated Press reported.
The government is also challenging the court’s jurisdiction, saying it is barred from hearing challenges to how and when deportation proceedings are held.
“District courts play no role in that process,” wrote Michael Drescher, Vermont’s acting US attorney, adding the court has no jurisdiction in Mahdawi’s case.
In a letter written from inside the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Vermont, Mahdawi described his arrest as a kidnapping set up to take place during his naturalization interview. A copy of the letter was obtained by CNN.
“The Department of Homeland Security orchestrated a honey trap, offering me a long-awaited appointment for citizenship,” Mahdawi wrote.
Attorneys for Mahdawi wrote in court documents that immigration officers attempted to remove Mahdawi to Louisiana following his arrest, part of a pattern by the government to transfer detainees away from their home districts. Mahdawi, however, was stopped from being transferred after his attorneys quickly petitioned the court seeking his release.
A judge issued an order preventing his transfer across state lines approximately three hours after his detention.
Mahdawi described it as “the flight that was supposed to steal me away like thieves in the middle of the day from Burlington, in my home state of Vermont, to Louisiana.”
According to Mahdawi’s attorneys, Crawford may rule later this week on whether the court has jurisdiction over matters that fall under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The judge directed the parties to file additional briefs in the coming days and scheduled a hearing on the motion seeking Mahdawi’s release for next week, on April 30.
“We intend on being back in one week’s time to free Mohsen,” Luna Droubi, an attorney for Mahdawi, said after the hearing. “The government has provided no basis, whatsoever, other than an admission that they (detained Mohsen) on the basis of his speech.”
In the meantime, court documents show Mahdawi received a notice to appear for a hearing in immigration court in Louisiana on May 1.
The notice says Mahdawi is removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act because the secretary of state has determined his presence and activities “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”
Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont met with Mahdawi on Monday and posted a video on X of them sitting together. Mahdawi, wearing a green prison uniform, thanked Welch and said his visit reassured him.
“I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy,” he said when Welch asked how he is doing. “This is the reason I wanted to become a citizen of this country because I believe in the principles of this country.
