Updated at 3:30 p.m.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi in a stinging decision that compared the Trump administration’s crackdown against student protesters to the dark days of the McCarthy era.
Mohsen, a 34-year-old Columbia University student, was arrested by federal immigration authorities last month for speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza. The U.S. government sought to keep him locked up while his case is pending, arguing that releasing him would undermine American foreign policy interests.
Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford rejected that premise.
Mahdawi poses neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, Crawford said, and his continued imprisonment would have a chilling effect on protected speech. The judge referenced the “extraordinary circumstances” surrounding Mahdawi’s arrest and how it falls into the broader context of American history.
“This is not the first time that the nation has seen chilling action by the government intended to shut down debate,” Judge Crawford wrote, invoking the Red Scare and McCarthy era — “not our proudest moments.”
Video courtesy of Five Eyes Films
Mahdawi’s immigration case will still proceed, but he will be allowed to live at his home in White River Junction and attend classes at Columbia, where he’s set to graduate this spring.
Cheers erupted as Mahdawi emerged from the Burlington courthouse around 10:30 a.m. with a keffiyeh draped across his shoulders. He hugged friends and supporters who had gathered to protest, held up peace signs and delivered a message to the leaders of the government that he said threw him in jail simply for raising his voice.
“I’m saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his cabinet,” Mahdawi said. “I am not afraid of you.”
His release represents a victory in the pitched legal fight over the Trump administration’s crackdown on student protesters. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said immigration authorities have a right to deport even those in the U.S. legally should they be found to have engaged in activities counter to foreign policy interests.
Immigration authorities have used that authority to detain and attempt to deport at least four college students in recent weeks, including Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia graduate, and Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey whose case is also being heard in Burlington.
Mahdawi, 34, was born and raised in the West Bank but came to the U.S. in 2014 and has held a green card for a decade. He was a visible advocate for Palestinian rights in 2023 on the campus of Columbia University, but he had largely stepped away from those activities by the time protests engulfed campuses last year.
He said he was told by critics following Trump’s election that they had reported him to the incoming administration in an attempt to get him deported. He said he tried to keep a low profile following Khalil’s arrest, fearing that he might be next.
But in late March, Mahdawi was notified that his naturalization interview had been scheduled, the final step in his citizenship process. Mahdawi has said he suspected that the meeting might be a trap, but he showed up anyway, only to be whisked out by masked immigration agents and shuttled to a flight from Burlington to Louisiana.
They got him to the airport nine minutes late, and he missed the flight, he said. Soon after, a judge granted an emergency motion that prevented the government from moving him out of Vermont. He has since spent more than two weeks in a state prison while attorneys argued over whether he should be detained while the case challenging his arrest proceeds.
During Mahdawi’s first court appearance last week, Judge Crawford marveled at the amount of public support, including dozens of letters — many from Jewish people — that described him as a peaceful advocate. But the judge postponed a ruling on bail, saying he felt the government should have a chance to respond.
Surely the government had “something in mind” when it deployed a “cavalcade of SUVs” to arrest Mahdawi, Crawford said.
A week later, prosecutors offered up their best evidence to show Mahdawi is a danger to society, relying primarily on a decade-old police report that led to no criminal charges.
In 2015, a local gun shop owner told Windsor Police that Mahdawi had visited his store twice, expressing interest in purchasing a sniper rifle and machine gun. The store owner claimed Mahdawi said he had considerable firearm experience and had built modified machine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.
Mahdawi confirmed that he had visited the gun shop, but said it was to ask about whether he needed to register a shotgun that his wife had given him as a gift. He denied discussing purchasing any weapons or saying what the owner alleged. He told a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who interviewed him about the allegations that he feared they were racially motivated. The agent ultimately closed the investigation, according to Mahdawi’s attorneys.
Matthew Melewski, one of Mahdawi’s attorneys, described the accusations as “cartoonishly racist hearsay.”
In his decision, Crawford described it as the “case of the dog that did not bark.” The FBI investigated and took no action, which suggests agents did not find the allegations credible, the judge said.
Meanwhile, although Mahdawi’s friends and supporters describe him as a peaceful figure who seeks consensus, his conduct would be protected under the First Amendment even if he were a “firebrand,” Crawford wrote.
“The court is aware that he has offended his political opponents and apparently given rise to concerns at the State Department that he is an obstacle to American foreign policy,” Crawford wrote, adding that’s not enough to show he’s a danger. Rather, Crawford wrote, Mahdawi’s release would seem to benefit his community, “which appears to deeply cherish and value him.”
Crawford was also unpersuaded by the government’s argument that Mahdawi posed a flight risk because he has previously traveled internationally. Mahdawi has extensive Vermont ties, Crawford said, and showed up to his citizenship interview despite knowing it may lead to his arrest.
Vermont’s congressional delegation released a statement on Wednesday expressing relief over the ruling.
“The Trump Administration’s actions in this case — and in so many other cases of wrongfully detained, deported, and disappeared people — are shameful and immoral,” reads the statement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.)
Speaking outside of the courthouse following his release, Mahdawi expressed gratitude for the many people who have followed his case, especially his fellow Vermonters.
“I’ve always learned that home is where you feel safe and loved, and those who surround you there are your people,” he told the crowd. “You are my people.”
He also thanked Crawford for making the “very brave decision” to let him out. He said, “For anybody who’s doubting justice, this is a light of hope and faith in the justice system in America.”
You can read the judge’s full decision here: