‘I Am Not Afraid of You’: Arrested Columbia Student Taunts Trump After Judge Releases Him From Immigration Custody

An anti-Israel student activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, gave a defiant message to the Trump administration as a federal judge ordered his release from federal immigration custody. “I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mr. Mahdawi said outside a Vermont courthouse on Wednesday. The 34-year-old was released from a St. Albans, Vermont, detainment facility where he has been held since his green card was revoked by immigration officials two weeks ago. The student activist was apprehended while visiting an immigration office in Vermont for a scheduled citizenship test. The Department of State maintains that Mr. Mahdawi is deportable under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides the secretary of state with the authority to oust a non-citizen who is deemed a threat to American foreign policy interests. Another anti-Israel student activist, Mahmoud Khalil, had his green card revoked under the same statute. At Columbia, Mr. Mahdawi served as co-president of the school’s Palestinian Students Union, a coalition of anti-Israel groups that included Columbia’s suspended chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. According to his habeas corpus filing, he was born and raised in the West Bank and moved to America in 2014. Mr. Mahdawi argues that he was unlawfully targeted by the administration for his pro-Palestinian speech and that his activism is protected by the First Amendment. He has also branded himself a peace activist and shirks accusations of antisemitism. Critics, however, have pulled posts from his social media accounts as evidence of his support for Hamas. In one Instagram post, Mr. Mahdawi praised terrorist leaders in Al Qassam Martyrs’ Brigade who were killed, including his cousin, who he called a “fierce resistance fighter.” Further, videos shared by Columbia’s Jewish Alumni Association appear to show Mr. Mahdawi’s less-than-peaceful protest tactics, including one clip from last winter in which he can be seen blasting a police siren directly in front of a group of Columbia students calling for the release of the Bibas family from Hamas captivity. “You really think this 35-year old man, who’s been an undergrad for 16 years, is just a ‘student’ exercising free speech?” the coalition of Jewish alumni asked. The federal judge presiding over the case, Geoffrey Crawford, denied the government’s request to delay Mr. Mahdawi’s release by a week and instead allowed the student activist to return home while his deportation case continues in immigration court. Judge Crawford determined that the student activist is not a flight risk and does not pose a danger to the public. The court ruling offers the latest test to the administration’s approach to quashing antisemitism and anti-Western sentiment on American university campuses. Mr. Mahdawi is among the first detained non-citizen students to be released from federal custody. Outside of the courthouse on Wednesday the newly freed activist referenced his fellow detained activists. “You might think I am free, but my freedom is interlinked to the freedom of many other students, including Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil,” he said.

‘I Am Not Afraid of You’: Arrested Columbia Student Taunts Trump After Judge Releases Him From Immigration Custody

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