Palestinian student activist arrested at US citizenship interview

An organiser of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University has been arrested by immigration officials as he attended an interview as part of his application for US citizenship, his lawyer says.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder who is due to graduate next month from the New York City college, was detained on Monday in Colchester, Vermont.

His lawyer said Mr Mahdawi was taken into custody “in direct retaliation” for his role in campus demonstrations against the Israel-Gaza war.

Others who took part in campus protests against the war, including Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University’s Rumeysa Ozturk, have been detained.

The BBC has contacted US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more details on Mr Mahdawi’s case.

Video shared on social media apparently shows him being escorted into a car by two officers wearing police jackets.

His lawyer, Luna Droubi, said: “The Trump administration detained Mohsen Mahdawi in direct retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinians and because of his identity as a Palestinian.

“His detention is an attempt to silence those who speak out against the atrocities in Gaza. It is also unconstitutional.”

The attorney applied to a federal court for a temporary restraining order to prevent US immigration authorities moving Mr Mahdawi out of Vermont or expelling him from the US.

Judge William Sessions, an Obama appointee, quickly granted that order.

The court filing says Mr Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the US in 2014.

It describes the philosophy major as a committed Buddhist who believes in “non-violence and empathy as a central tenet of his religion”.

The whereabouts of Mr Mahdawi, who has held US permanent resident status since 2015, are unknown, according to Ms Droubi.

Mr Mahdawi, who co-founded Columbia’s Palestinian Student Society, has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

Last December, he did an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes programme in which he accused Israel of genocide, which it denies.

Mr Mahdawi’s detention comes amid an immigration crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at least 300 foreign students’ visas had been revoked in an effort to tackle antisemitism on university campuses.

Critics say US officials are falsely accusing students of anti-Jewish bigotry and violating their right to free speech.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said on X that Mr Mahdawi “was illegally detained by ICE during what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process”.

The senator said he “must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention”.

Judge Sessions also held a hearing on Monday in the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Boston’s Tufts University, who was arrested by immigration authorities last month.

He questioned whether the Trump administration would provoke a “constitutional crisis” by not releasing the student from custody if the court were to order that she be moved from detention in Louisiana back to Vermont.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil are currently challenging an immigration judge’s ruling on Friday allowing the government to deport him as a national security risk.

The Columbia University protest leader was detained last month outside his campus accommodation and transferred to a Louisiana detention centre.