As the case aims to challenge Mohsen Mahdawi’s deportation, a judge in the United States has ordered his release.
US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford issued a ruling on Wednesday that Mahdawi could leave the Northwest State Correctional Facility, where he had been detained since being detained by immigration authorities earlier this month.
As supporters greeted him with cheers and with both hands in the air, Mahdawi flashed peace signs as he left the court.
He addressed President Donald Trump, whose administration has repressed student protesters who have criticized Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
Mahdawi addressed Trump, “I’m not afraid of you.” He addressed the Palestinian people and tried to dispel the myths that the student protest movement was peaceful.
“We support peace and oppose war,” Mahdawi said. To my Palestinian neighbors, “I see freedom, I feel your pain, and I see your suffering.”
Mahdawi, a legal resident of the US and a participant in the Columbia University protests, was detained on April 14 while undergoing a citizenship interview. Social media users quickly saw a video of him being escorted away in handcuffs.
His arrest was a part of the Trump administration’s wider campaign to target permanent residents and visa holders for their pro-Palestine advocacy. Trump has also pressed top universities to halt pro-Palestine demonstrations in an effort to combat anti-Semitism.
Critics, however, claim that rationale is an excuse to stifle opposing viewpoints and exert greater control over academia.
A Vermont federal judge just released Mohsen Mahdawi on bail. pic. https://twitter.com/sgtNyfeYmU
What exactly is in the ruling?
Judge Crawford ruled that the student activist posed no risk of flight and could be let go to his New York City graduation the following month.
Mahdawi’s release may be subject to an appeal by the US government, but the judge’s ruling allows him to leave Vermont and contest his deportation from a detention facility.
However, his release was opposed by the Trump administration. According to its attorneys, Mahdawi’s detention was a “constitutionally acceptable component of the deportation process.”
Mahdawi’s attorneys have argued that his arrest violates his right to free speech under the Constitution.
Mahdawi’s lawyer, Lia Ernst, who represents him in the American Civil Liberties Union, stated in a statement following his release that “Mohsen has committed no crime, and the government’s only supposed justification for holding him in prison is his speech.”
The US Supreme Court may decide in the end, however, that the Trump administration has taken the general position that only US citizens are protected by constitutional speech protections.
Government lawyers have cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 as the legal justification for Mahdawi’s deportation in court filings.
The secretary of state has “reasonable grounds to believe]they would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” under a rarely used section of the law that allows the US to deport foreign nationals.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sought to deport Mahdawi and other pro-Palestinian student protesters using that provision. Israel plays a significant role in the Middle East for the US.
advocacy is under attack.
Mahdawi was detained a few weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a fellow permanent resident of the US, was detained.
Immigration officials detained Khalil at the beginning of March. At the prestigious Ivy League university, the pair co-founded the Palestinian Student Union.
Since his arrest outside of his apartment, Khalil has been held in immigration custody in Louisiana. A judge in immigration court earlier this month upheld Khalil’s deportation, supporting government attorneys.
Secretary of State Rubio ordered the 30-year-old to be kicked out of the US for “his role in antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which create a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States,” according to a two-page letter from the court.
In what critics have called an effort to silence freedom of speech, the Trump administration has generally described nearly all pro-Palestine advocacy as “anti-Semitic.”
Rubio’s accusations against Khalil are unsupported, and the student leader has been indicted for a crime. Even though a permanent resident’s beliefs, associations, or statements are “otherwise legal,” Rubio’s letter asserted that his department could revoke them.
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Khalil can file a lawsuit against his arrest and detention based on the allegations that he was targeted for his political views.
Both Mahdawi and Khalil have separate court cases, one challenging the justification for their arrests and the other seeking deportation.
Democrat Senator Peter Welch, a US senator, visited Mahdawi while he was detained, who had previously called the arrest of the student “unjust” and anti-democratic.
According to a video posted on Welch’s X account, Mahdawi said at the time, “I’m staying positive by reassuring myself of the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy.”
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply