ICE Ambushed Mohsen Mahdawi in a 'Trap' and Had a 'Clear Plan to Ship Him to Louisiana'
The Palestinian Columbia student’s legal team says Mahdawi signed a pledge to defend the Constitution, and then ICE showed up.
Mohsen Mahdawi attended his US citizenship interview, raised his right hand, and answered all the questions asked of him, before signing a document to pledge that he was willing to “defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign, and domestic.”
And then, shortly after, the immigration official he was working with walked out, saying he needed to “check” on something and he’d be right back. Masked and visibly armed ICE agents subsequently marched in and shackled Mahdawi, took him to a car, and immediately set out on “a clear plan to ship him to Louisiana,” over 1,000 miles away.
That’s according to Mahdawi’s legal team in a Tuesday legal filing making a motion for his release from detention. “It was a trap,” his team concludes.
Mahdawi, a green card holder, was detained by the Trump administration nearly two weeks ago. The Palestinian Columbia student had been active in pro-Palestine and pro-peace protests on campus during the last 18 months. After his arrest, a leaked memo revealed that the State Department was attempting to justify his arrest by fielding the spurious claim that he threatened the “Middle East peace process” due to his "threatening rhetoric and intimidation."
Mahdawi’s lawyers call the allegations “baseless.” In a statement via his legal team on Wednesday, Mahdawi said: “I am in prison but am not prisoned. A system of democracy guarantees freedom of speech. Speaking of Palestine does not only qualify as freedom of speech but it is also about our humanity.”
Flight Missed to Louisiana
According to his Tuesday filing, the government was planning to send Mahdawi to Louisiana, in the same fashion it has rushed off other people it has detained in recent weeks, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, as well as Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri (who is now being held in a Texas detention center).
Mahdawi’s legal team told Zeteo that agents had tickets printed to transfer Mahdawi via a commercial flight from Burlington, Vermont, just hours after detaining him. The agents were apparently kind to him, but when he felt sick, they denied him medical care and insisted on taking him to the airport. Because he was feeling sick, he went to the bathroom, which subsequently made him miss the flight – perhaps the only reason he wasn’t sent to Louisiana before a judge could weigh in.
His legal team said that agents had discussed driving him to Massachusetts in front of Mahdawi, but a judge had already signed a temporary restraining order that prohibited the government from moving him from the state.
Still, at approximately 5:57 pm, Tuesday’s filing states – nearly three hours after a judge issued a restraining order preventing the transfer of Mahdawi – "the automated case information system for the Executive Office for Immigration Review still listed the venue of Mr. Mahdawi’s Master Calendar Hearing to be in Louisiana under Judge Sherron Ashworth” on May 1.
Sending detainees to Louisiana appears to be part of the Trump administration’s effort to separate detainees from their families and legal teams, and to “shop” for judges who might be more apt to rule in favor of the attempted deportation.
ICE did not immediately respond to Zeteo’s request for comment.
Lawful Free Speech
The State Department’s justification that Mahdawi has espoused “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” echoes Columbia’s own words as it suspended student activist groups after a November 2023 rally (where, notably, Mahdawi directly confronted an antisemitic disruptor).
Nevertheless, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has personally determined – as with others like Khalil – that Mahdawi’s “presence and activities in the United States would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.” Per documents filed by the Department of Homeland Security, Rubio’s determination is based on information provided by DHS/ICE/HSI that Mahdawi “through his leadership and involvement in disruptive protests at Columbia University, has engaged in anti-Semitic conduct through leading pro-Palestinian protests and calling for Israel's destruction.”
Mahdawi’s legal team wrote in its Tuesday filing that “notwithstanding the falsehoods in these baseless allegations,” the government’s documents constitute the only evidence presented for his detainment, and “make clear that the basis for Mr. Mahdawi’s detention is his ‘lawful’ speech and associations.”
Because the authority Rubio cites is rarely used, it’s hardly been tested in court. Many legal experts view it as legally-unsound.
Many of those detained under the authority are challenging their detention in federal court.
The State Department told Zeteo it does not comment on ongoing litigation.
On Wednesday, a judge deferred the decision on whether to release Mahdawi on bail to next week.
“I don't want people to lose hope. Stay positive and believe in the inevitability of justice. This hearing is part of the democratic system as it prevents a tyrant from having unchecked power,” Mahdawi said in a statement after the hearing. “Keep the hope alive. I will see you under the sun.”
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).
And if you are already a paid subscriber to Zeteo but would like to increase your support for our accountability journalism, please consider a donation, too.
Read more of Zeteo’s coverage of Trump’s crackdown on campus protests:
This regime is doing everything it can to silence anyone who speaks against the Israeli apartheid regime. It is ludicrous! Why don’t we see how Marco Rubio would feel if he and his family are sent back to Cuba?! Everyone is afforded due process under the US Constitution. And maybe we need to replace the judges who are going along with this tyranny. It’s all so shameful!
This is getting more and more disgusting. Are all those working there have no conscience? Are they All Fascists?