Who is Mohsen Mahdawi, the Palestinian Columbia student arrested at his US citizenship interview?

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University and a known organiser of pro-Palestinian campus activism, was arrested on April 8, 2025, during what he believed would be a routine interview to complete his US citizenship process.

Instead of being naturalised, Mahdawi, a US green card holder for the past decade, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in Colchester, Vermont.

Mahdawi’s detention, which his lawyers described as abrupt and unlawful, triggered urgent legal efforts and widespread concern.

A Vermont federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring his transfer out of state, a tactic reportedly used against other Palestinian students. "This is their M.O.," said Mahdawi’s attorney, Luna Droubi.

“They just continue to hide the individual to the point where their attorneys can’t quite understand or identify where to file.”

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According to his legal team, Mahdawi is now facing deportation under a rarely used provision that allows the US Secretary of State to label individuals as threats to national security or foreign policy.

Immigration authorities have not filed any criminal charges but appear to be linking his activism to national security concerns.

Who is Mohsen Mahdawi?

Originally from a refugee camp in the West Bank, Mahdawi moved to the United States in 2014.

He is currently finishing his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Columbia’s School of General Studies and had planned to begin graduate studies at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in the fall.

Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent military operations in Gaza, Mahdawi co-founded Dar: the Palestinian Student Society at Columbia and played a key role in organising pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

He also helped launch Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student-led coalition advocating for divestment from Israel.

However, by March 2024, he chose to step back from organising, citing concerns over his immigration status and his values as a practicing Buddhist.

"My motivation comes out of love now, not out of anger, not out of hate," he said in a December 2023 CBS News' 60 Minutes interview, where he also recounted witnessing the killing of his childhood best friend by an Israeli soldier.

“The fight for freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Mahdawi told CBS at the time.

Mahdawi also served as president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association for two years and actively sought dialogue with Jewish and Israeli students.

According to The New York Times, his friend, Mikey Baratz, an Israeli-American student at Columbia, described him as someone “who so quickly was willing to take feedback.”

“This is a Palestinian. I’m an Israeli. Our people are at war,” Baratz said. “And his willingness to actually hear and actively learn and understand the Israeli experience — I mean, I’ve never met anyone who so quickly was willing to take feedback.”

How Mahdawi came under fire

Mahdawi’s name has appeared frequently in online campaigns by pro-Israel groups such as Betar USA and Canary Mission, who have accused him of antisemitic views and labelled him “pro-Hamas.”

These groups began posting about him as early as January 2024, publicly calling for his deportation. Betar USA claimed Mahdawi was “on our deport list” and repeated the call several times over the following months.

In early 2024, Mahdawi attempted to connect with pro-Israel voices on campus, even meeting Columbia professor Shai Davidai for coffee. Davidai later included Mahdawi in a social media thread suggesting that he and other student activists were “antisemitic and pro-Hamas.”

While there is no indication Davidai was involved in deportation discussions, he was reportedly part of a WhatsApp group of alumni and faculty seeking to push for the removal of student protest leaders, reported The Intercept.

Mahdawi also became a subject of profiles by StopAntisemitism and Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus at ColumbiaU, further raising his visibility among right-wing groups.

After the Trump administration resumed efforts to deport pro-Palestinian student activists, Mahdawi went into hiding for over three weeks and repeatedly sought help from Columbia University to secure a safe location. According to emails reviewed by The Intercept, the university declined to relocate him to a more secure space.

What next for Mahdawi

With violence escalating in the West Bank, Mahdawi fears deportation could be life-threatening. “It’s kind of a death sentence,” he said. “Because my people are being killed unjustly in an indiscriminate way.”

He added that several members of his family, including two cousins, have been killed in the ongoing violence since October 2023, and his father's store was destroyed in Jenin.

Despite the danger, Mahdawi said he still hopes to one day become a US citizen and continue his education. “People ask me why I would want to become a citizen of a country committing genocide,” he said. “I have faith in the people living in this country. The government is not the people.”

Vermont lawmakers, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Representative Becca Balint, issued a joint statement condemning the arrest: “This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.”

With inputs from agencies