On Monday morning, Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University and formerly Lehigh, was taken into custody by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement during his citizenship appointment in Vermont.
Mahdawi previously attended Lehigh and expected to graduate in 2022, but he transferred to Columbia in 2021.
Born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, Mahdawi moved to the U.S. in 2014, according to a petition filed Monday by his lawyers.
According to a New York Times article published Monday, Mahdawi is a legal permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. for 10 years. He was detained by ICE officials after arriving for a citizenship appointment in Vermont.
The article also states Mahdawi’s lawyers requested a temporary restraining order to prevent federal officials from transferring him to a more conservative jurisdiction — a tactic used in the detention and attempted deportation of at least four other college demonstrators.
Among the demonstrators is Mahmoud Kahlil, a Columbia graduate and legal permanent resident, who co-founded Dar: the Palestinian Student Society with Mahdawi to “celebrate Palestinian culture, history and identity” at the university, according to the petition.
Mahdawi, who helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, said he walked away from this role in March 2024, according to an article published by The New York Times on Wednesday.
The article states Mahdawi told his friends he hoped to find middle ground in the Israel-Palestine conflict and engage in dialogue with supporters of Israel.
In an interview with CBS Evening News prior to his arrest, Mahdawi said he was an undergraduate student at Columbia studying philosophy, with an expected graduation date of May 21. He said he had been accepted to pursue a master’s degree in international affairs at Columbia beginning in fall 2025.
In the interview, Mahdawi said a campaign calling for his deportation went viral following an antisemitic incident on Columbia’s campus that he vocally condemned. He said this was misconstrued and stood firmly that “our movement is about justice and antisemitism has no place in our movement.”
In response to his arrest, Lehigh’s Student Political Action Coalition will be hosting a rally in solidarity with Mahdawi at the flagpole on April 21 at 4:30 p.m.
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