Just one day before Mohsin Mahdavi Detained by immigration agents He was told that his citizenship was interviewed, a student of Columbia and Palestinian worker told CBS News that he felt that there was a chance that a long -awaited appointment could be a trap.
“This is the first feeling, I have been waiting for it for more than a year,” the native of the Mahdvi-Israel-occupied West Bank, who has placed a green card for the past decade-told CBS News on the eve of his detention. “And the second feel, wait a minute. Is it a honey trap?”
Mahdavi was taken into custody after reaching his interview in Vermont on Monday. CBS News strap the federal agents shortly after entering the building, which emerged with Mahdvi in handcuffs after about an hour.
His lawyers say he was detained under a small-used law, allowing foreign nationals to “severe adverse foreign policy results”-they were made the latest students, including fellow Colombia activists and green card holders. Mahmud KhalilMahdvi’s legal team has filed a petition to a judge to release him and alleged that he is being punished for a protected speech, in violation of the first amendment and violation of the right to the appropriate process.
Shortly after Mahdvi’s custody, the federal judge William Sessions ordered the Trump administration not to deport her or take her out of the state, while the sessions reviewed the case, provided a request to Mahdvi’s lawyers.
The Homeland Security Department referred to the state department a request for comment, which refused to comment.
Mahdawi- Who says he was ready to hold his bachelor’s degree in philosophy in May-Co-establish the Palestinian Students Union in Columbia with Khalil in 2023. Mahdvi was later active in a protest against the War of Israel in Gaza in the Colombia campus, which began after Hamas’s terrorist attack, which began from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. His lawyers said in a court that Mahdvi took one step back from organizing protests in March 2024, ” First The protests later increased in the spring in which the protesters captured a campus building.
The nationwide wave was a political electric rod in protest against the Palestinian campus, in which critics argued the demonstrations-and their leaders were-in-laws and were depicted in antisementic rhetoric. The Columbia Trump is one of the several schools facing a freeze in federal funding by the administration, with the Ivagous school “has failed to protect students and faculty from antisementic violence and harassment.”
Mahdvi told CBS News in the previous weekend that he faced “threatening” and “intimidation” at the end of 60 minutes at the end of 2023 at the end of 60 minutes. Shortly after taking over by President Trump, he attracted the attention of a controversial-irresponent group of Betar USA, a controversial-eisheral group, which was on his “exile list”.
Former Group Executive Director Ross Glick told CBS News that Betar USA has collected information about thousands of supporters Palestinian workers and has given it to the Trump administration. He said that it is up to the government to decide whether someone really supports Hamas: “Once the information is handed over, we get out of this process, okay? It is eventually dependent on various officials.”
Mahdavi pushed back the criticism of Betar, stating that groups like Betar “manipulates information, make lies, and attach them to the profiles of those students or workers.” Mahdavi has generally denied the claims of antismitism at the University of Columbia, which calls him “wrong allegations”.
He also told CBS News over the weekend that if he is detained by federal agents, “I want people to know that my compassion is beyond the Palestinian people. My compassion is for Jewish people and also with Israel.”
After Khalil was detained outside his Colombia -owned apartments last month, Mahdvi feared that she could be carried forward. Khalil is currently held in Louisiana, and his legal future is uncertain: an immigration judge ruled the Trump administration last week Can proceed with exile But to file an application for relief, he gave his lawyers by the end of April. His lawyers have indicated that they will appeal to the decision, and they are sueing the government for their release separately.
Mahdavi told CBS News that he started taking precautions for his safety, including escape from public places after Khalil’s custody. Nevertheless, when he found the word of a citizenship appointed, he chose to participate – although he suspected it could come into his custody.
“This is an irony. The irony of destiny. And I accept the result,” said Mahdvi a day ago. “If my story will become another story for the struggle of justice and democracy in this country, then let it happen.”
Lillia luciano
