Emails Show Mohsen Mahdawi Pleaded with Columbia for Protection for Months Before ICE Detained Him
“Is this how Columbia cares for its students?” the green card holder asked less than a month before his arrest this week.
Palestinian Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi pleaded with the school for protection for months, and expressed concern about an apparent FBI visit and a possible break-in to his residence before the Trump administration detained him during a citizenship interview this week, emails obtained by Zeteo show.
“I am writing to you with a final plea for urgent help. My life is in danger, and Columbia University’s inaction is putting me at further risk,” Mahdawi, a green card holder, wrote in a March 17 email to then-Columbia President Katrina Armstrong, School of General Studies dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch, Columbia chief operating officer Cas Holloway, senior vice president for Columbia Health Melanie Bernitz, and Columbia dean of religious life Ian Rottenberg.
“On Monday, March 10, 2025, following the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, I sent an urgent email requesting immediate support, as I am being explicitly targeted for deportation, doxxed, and followed. Yet, to this moment, I have received no response from you,” he continued.
“For the past seven days, I have been forced to shelter at a friend’s Columbia residence because it is not safe for me to walk on the street,” Mahdawi wrote, adding that he barely saw the sun, and did not access his basic meal plan or medical care due to fear.
In the same email, Mahdawi wrote he wasn’t trying to evade justice and would comply if a court order against him existed. But, he said, the “threat of being detained illegally by DHS in public spaces has stripped me of my freedom of movement.”
Mahdawi mentioned that he requested relocation to on-campus housing after Betar, a far-right pro-Israel group that has targeted several students, including Khalil, “launched a nationwide campaign on January 31, 2025, calling for my deportation.”
The request, according to Mahdawi, was “dismissed with the excuse” that on-campus housing is not available to General Studies or graduate students. Mahdawi, a General Studies student, is set to graduate this year.
“When Mahmoud Khalil pleaded for help and was illegally arrested by DHS, perhaps you could claim you had no time to intervene. But I have been pleading for help since early February—and not a single measure was taken to protect me. Is this how Columbia cares for its students?” he asked.
“My life is at risk. If anything happens to me, the responsibility will fall on senior administration, the GS administration, and the University Senate.
This is your last chance to act. Will Columbia choose to protect its students—or continue to abandon them?”
Columbia University and the FBI did not immediately respond to Zeteo’s requests for comment.
FBI Visit
The fact Mahdawi asked the university for help was first reported by The Intercept, but this is the first time the emails, including the Palestinian student's explicit pleas for protection, are being detailed.
In another email, dated September 29, 2024, Mahdawi asked Columbia’s public safety department about an apparent FBI visit to his apartment.
“We were informed that they were responding to an anonymous report, following up on your wellbeing, and to check if you were being threatened. Nothing further was shared with us,” the office responded.
Two weeks later, Mahdawi emailed the university’s public safety department again: “Someone entered my apartment today between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. It seems like they were professionals, as they tried to put everything back almost exactly as they found it. I need to open an investigation about this.” He also asked for answers to previous questions on the FBI visit.
The office responded, stating that it would “look into the matter” regarding the alleged break-in, and said questions about the FBI visit should be directed to the NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force.
In later emails regarding the break-in, public safety stated that it observed nothing unusual in the lobby security camera footage and that it did not have cameras on the upper floors. Mahdawi requested footage, but public safety responded that they could not release it without a subpoena or court order. They also said he could not install a camera outside his apartment due to privacy concerns for other residents.
‘Threatening Rhetoric and Intimidation’
Mahdawi, who had been in the US for a decade, was detained by immigration authorities in Vermont on Monday during what was supposed to be a citizenship interview. A judge has ordered the Trump administration not to move him from the state, pending a legal case challenging his arrest.
The State Department cited “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” to target Mahdawi, without elaborating. The same phrasing was cited by Columbia, when it suspended the school’s Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, after a November 2023 rally.
At said rally, there was indeed an antisemitic disruptor – who Mahdawi himself confronted.
Columbia privately walked back the characterization – but has refused to do so publicly. It has since been cited in Congress, in reference to campus antisemitism warranting crackdowns.
Mahdawi raised the issue in his emails to administrators. In one email, dated Feb. 16, 2025, he recounted a meeting when one of the recipient officials “acknowledged” that Mahdawi had denounced the antisemitic disruptor. He asked Columbia to issue a statement clarifying facts about the incident. While administrators replied, responding to other points Mahdawi brought up, they did not address the request to publicly clarify the truth. Mahdawi followed up again. “What makes this specific incident different from the ones the university has publicly disclosed? This was an event that took place on campus while the gates were closed, involved students, and involved the presence of Public Safety and the NYPD. What criteria determine whether an incident warrants a public response?”
The administrators did not respond.
Mahdawi followed up again weeks later, one day after Khalil’s arrest. No response.
Two months later, the Trump administration detained Mahdawi.
If you are a student affected by this or someone who works in or around the US government with relevant information about these developments, please contact me via email or Signal (premthakker.35).
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Read more of Zeteo’s coverage of Trump’s crackdown on campus protests:
The current administration of Columbia and the Board of Trustees appear shameless. No regard for the welfare of students and faculty and no regard for academic integrity. A tragic chapter in the history of this once great university. And the compassionate students who tried to stand against the genocide in Palestine are paying a heavy price.
They are coming for all of us who are against this genocide and if you think you and I are safe from this Gestapo-like system, then wait till they are cuffing you in plain clothes and taking you without charging you with a crime.