Palestinian Activist Detained by Immigration Officials in Colchester

Updated at 6:22 p.m.

A Palestinian activist from White River Junction was detained by federal immigration officials in Colchester and led away in handcuffs on Monday afternoon, prompting an outcry from supporters and elected officials, including a state senator who took video of the encounter.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal U.S. resident and one of the leaders of the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia University, had been called in for a “naturalization interview” at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Office and was promptly arrested, according to his attorneys.

Vermont Sen. Becca White (D-Windsor), who posted videos of the incident to social media, called Mahdawi’s detention “outrageous.” U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said in a statement it was “immoral, inhumane, and illegal.”

“This is a violation of everything that America stands for,” White said.

The arrest comes amid mounting scrutiny of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport people it considers Hamas supporters. Hundreds rallied outside Burlington’s federal courthouse on Monday morning to protest the detainment of Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who was pulled off the street last month by masked immigration agents in Massachusetts. She was flown from Burlington to Louisiana, where she is being detained. Ozturk’s attorneys want her case heard in Vermont.

Mahdawi grew up in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the U.S. in 2014, receiving his green card in 2015. He was a student at Columbia University and was planning to graduate next month before starting a master’s degree in the fall, according to legal filings.

He cofounded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia in 2023 to “celebrate Palestinian culture, history, and identity,” according to legal filings. The group later advocated for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Another cofounder is Mahmoud Khalil, who was earlier detained by immigration officials in New York and sent to Louisiana for deportation proceedings.

A federal judge has ruled that Khalil, a green card holder and permanent resident, can be deported under “a 1952 law — the Immigration and Nationality Act — which allows the secretary of state to deport noncitizens if their presence in the country threatens U.S. foreign policy,” NBC News reported.

Mahdawi’s supporters were worried that he, too, would be arrested and shipped out of state before being deported. So he went to Monday’s interview with an attorney. After his arrest, his legal team filed an emergency motion in U.S. District Court in Vermont demanding he be kept here.

Judge William K. Sessions III agreed and signed an order on Monday afternoon that Mahdawi “not be removed from the United States or moved out of the territory of the District of Vermont pending further order of this Court.”

In their motion, Mahdawi attorneys argued that his arrest was part of an effort to “retaliate and punish noncitizens for their speech and expressive conduct related to Palestine and Israel.”

Mahdawi is currently being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, according to one of his attorneys, Andrew Delaney of Barre.

White, who referred to Mahdawi as a constituent and a friend, recorded several videos from outside the building at 463 Mountain View Drive in Colchester. She said she did so to quickly get the word out that he was being arrested.

One shows Mahdawi being led out of the building in handcuffs by officers, some of whom wore hoods over their heads and cloth masks pulled over their faces. They placed Mahdawi in an unmarked SUV.

“Our friend Mohsen is being taken by whoever these people are,” White says in the video. “They say they are diplomatic security services. This is very concerning,” White said.

At one point, the senator reads out the license plate number of an unmarked SUV and notes that the people taking Mahdawi into custody have no badge numbers or IDs. “I don’t even know how to describe it,” she said on video. “He was kidnapped!”

She described the “interview” with immigration officials as a ruse, or a “honey trap” meant to lure Mahdawi and arrest him. She said she had urged Mahdawi to flee to Canada instead of going to the interview.

Later on Monday, Vermont’s three members of Congress issued a statement that said he appeared at the immigration office “for what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process.

“Instead, he was arrested and removed in handcuffs by plain-clothed, armed, individuals with their faces covered. These individuals refused to provide any information as to where he was being taken or what would happen to him,” the statement said. “Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.”
Read Mahdawi’s petition below:

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