Mahdawi's arrest and subsequent release tested the limits of executive immigration authority over legal residents engaged in political speech.
Key Facts
- Date of detention
- April 14, 2025
- Date of release
- April 30, 2025
- Duration of detention
- Approximately two weeks
- Detaining agency
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
- Detention site
- USCIS office, Colchester, Vermont
- Releasing judge
- Geoffrey W. Crawford, Vermont federal court
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, engaged in pro-Palestinian activism and opposition to the Gaza war. The U.S. State Department initiated deportation proceedings, asserting that his activities were harmful to U.S. foreign policy interests.
On April 14, 2025, ICE detained Mahdawi at a USCIS office in Colchester, Vermont, where he had been summoned for a citizenship interview. His legal team immediately filed a habeas corpus petition, and Vermont federal judge William K. Sessions III ordered that he not be transferred out of the state.
After approximately two weeks of detention, Vermont federal judge Geoffrey W. Crawford ordered Mahdawi's release on April 30, 2025, ruling that his detention caused great harm to a person charged with no crime, marking a judicial check on the administration's use of immigration enforcement against political activists.