Updated April 29, 2025 at 7:09 AM MST
The April 14 detention of Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was caught on video as he flashed a peace sign while being taken from an immigration office in Colchester, Vt. He told NPR's Morning Edition he'd arrived thinking an interview there would be his final step to becoming a U.S. citizen after 10 years of living and learning in the United States.
Instead, after sitting for a naturalization interview and signing a document pledging allegiance to the U.S. and to protecting and defending the Constitution, he was arrested by masked agents in Homeland Security jackets.
In the first media interview with any of the Trump administration's student detainees – all at risk of deportation — Mahdawi spoke to Leila Fadel in the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Vt., where he's awaiting a court hearing Wednesday in a petition that argues government officials violated his First Amendment right to free speech and his right to due process.
Before the interview, he said he had been meditating to find calm, as he does every day.
"I am centered internally. I am at peace. While I still know deeply that this is a level of injustice that I am facing, I have faith. I have faith that justice will prevail," said Mahdawi, who co-founded Columbia's Palestinian Student Union and was president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association.
Mahdawi, a lawful permanent U.S. resident who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, is among multiple international students facing deportation – ostensibly over their advocacy on several campuses against Israel's war in Gaza.
His lawyers are arguing in federal court in Vermont that Mahdawi was detained "in retaliation for his speech advocating for Palestinian human rights" and that his arrest and detention are part of a policy "intended to silence and chill the speech of those who advocate for Palestinian human rights."
The Justice Department Monday submitted new court filings that included a two-page letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating that the "activities and presence of Mahdawi in the United States undermines U.S. policy to combat antisemitism." It added that protests like those Mahdawi led at Columbia "potentially undermine the peace process underway in the Middle East," where efforts for a ceasefire have stalled.
Right now some 59 hostages taken from Israel are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, about half are believed dead according to Israel. Meanwhile Israel has been withholding aid from Gaza for eight weeks and Palestinians are going hungry as they endure daily attacks.
Monday's court filing did not provide any evidence of the accusations against Mahdawi in the letter, including those of threatening rhetoric and intimidation of pro-Israeli bystanders. The government argues that the federal court in Vermont should not grant Mahdawi's request for release because it does not have jurisdiction in foreign policy matters.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to NPR's request for comment.
In response to the court filings, Mahdawi's lawyer, Luna Droubi, said the accusations in the letter are "completely false." Mahdawi has been very vocal in his opposition to antisemitism.
"Mr. Mahdawi is a person of complete and full principle who believes in the human dignity of every person," she told NPR. "The government's just scraping at the bottom of the barrel to try to find something, anything that is simply leading to punishment of students for their advocacy for Palestinian rights."
The following interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.
On his confidence that justice will prevail:
First of all, seeing the people of Vermont, the people in the United States raising their voices, saying this is unjust and we don't accept it gives me faith. Second, I believe in a system of democracy and I have faith in the justice system here. And the last one, which is the most important to me, what gives me faith, is seeing the resilience and the strength in my people in Gaza. After all of the pain and destruction and the genocide that they went through they still hold on hope and they have strong faith.
Note: Mahdawi calls what is happening in Gaza a genocide. It's also what Israeli and international human rights groups like B'tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and Amnesty International have deemed Israel's response in Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel. The 2023 assault killed nearly 1,200 people and Hamas took 251 hostages, according to the Israeli government. Israel denies the accusation of genocide.
On a decade of experiencing of American liberties:
Before coming to this country, freedom was just a concept. But the actual experience of freedom of movement to travel among 50 states, freedom to breathe the breeze of the ocean, and to feel your toes in the sand. This is the first place I have experienced this freedom of speech where I will not be actually retaliated against or punished for saying my mind.
Do I still feel this way? I think it's in jeopardy. I think this is a red flag, not only to me, but to the American people who care about freedom, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I have the hope that this country will fulfill its promise.
On the day he was detained:
When I get the appointment the first thing was uh… is this a trap or is it legit? And I realized directly that I am dealing with two extreme opposite poles. One is becoming a citizen with full rights, and the other one is being detained and having no rights.
I see the risk, I see the opportunity, and I want the American people to see this, too. To see this level of injustice. That I am doing everything legally, that I have prepared and studied for the Constitution and that I went willingly and respected the law, did everything the way how it's supposed to be done.
On his First Amendment case:
When I speak of injustice, I remember Martin Luther King. And when he says injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And the injustice that I am facing here and the injustice that the antiwar movement is facing, is also connected to the injustice that the Palestinian people are going through.
We're talking about 55,000 people have been killed. We see children being killed, amputated, losing their parents, no homes. This is what's moving us. And when I signed on the Pledge of Allegiance, I signed to protect and defend the Constitution. I am practicing here my constitutional rights, not to call for any destruction of anyone, not to fight anyone. I'm saying we need peace. We need to stop the war. And we want children, all children, to live in peace, without fear and without trauma.
Note: Gaza health officials say more than 52,000 people have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023.
On the government's allegations that his continued presence in the U.S. would have adverse consequences on foreign policy and that he allegedly "advocated for violence, glorified and supported terrorists, and harrassed Jews":
The government is gaslighting the American people and especially the American Jewish communities. In fact, we had so many Jews and Israelis who actually joined us in saying ceasefire now. So they are actually weaponizing antisemitism in order to destroy the hope that this America has, which is universities and liberal institutions. They are part of the checks and balances actually of this country, of any democracy.
On his hopes of becoming an American citizen:
Do I want to still be an American? I have showed my will, my desire to become an American in a place that I call home in Vermont. And the American government has denied me this opportunity by setting me up, actually deceiving me. So now it's up to the American people to decide what path they would want to take, whether to have the path where they welcome me as a citizen of this country or not. And I also want to remind everybody, the definition of the government in the Constitution, we the people and I am counting on the people who I've got the chance to know, as kindhearted, good people to stand up for what is right.
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