Palestinian Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi released from federal custody on conditions
A Palestinian college student has been released on conditions following weeks of detainment by federal agents.
Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi was released from federal custody on Wednesday morning following a hearing at the federal courthouse in Burlington, Vermont. U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford presided over the hearing.
Mahdawi will be allowed to keep permanent residency in Vermont and will still be allowed to go to New York City to attend school and graduate from Columbia University. He will also be allowed to meet with his legal team.
Sister station WPTZ was in the courtroom during the hearing. The judge in the case said that he did not believe that Mahdawi posed a risk to the public and also said that he was not a flight risk. The judge went on to say that he has heard from multiple people who know Mahdawi who all said he was peaceful.
Crawford compared the recent period of migrants and immigrants being detained to the era of McCarthyism and the infamous "Red Scare," saying that those periods in American history are not ones we should be proud of.
Mahdawi was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on April 14 in Colchester while attending a naturalization interview.
, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Mahdawi of "reinforcing antisemitic sentiment."
"Protests of the type led by Mahdawi potentially undermine the peace process underway in the Middle East," Rubio said in a letter.
Related video: See the moment Mahdawi was arrested by federal agents
According to a court filing, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. He recently completed coursework at Columbia and was expected to graduate in May before beginning a master’s degree program there in the fall.
Mahdawi has been a legal permanent resident for 10 years. He gained attention for his role in organizing the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University and for speaking out against the war in Gaza.
As a student, Mahdawi was an outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and organized campus protests until March 2024. He cofounded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the U.S. and graduate student who was detained by immigration authorities.
An immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that the government’s assertion that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” satisfied the requirements for deportation.
A rally was being held outside the courthouse on Wednesday to call for his release from prison. That rally in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday evening calling for Mahdawi's release. That gathering was organized by Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.