Above photo: Mohsen Mahdawi addressing the press and supporters outside a Vermont courthouse following his release, on April 30, 2025. Photo posted to social media by Liz Crampton/Politico.
A federal judge in Vermont ordered Mohsen Mahdawi be released from detention.
Judge Crawford compared the administration’s crackdown on dissent to the Red Scare. Upon his release, Mahdawi declared, “To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi is free on bail after a federal judge in Vermont ordered his release.
It’s the first order mandating the release of a student detained by the Trump administration. The New York Times called his release “a defeat” for the administration’s “widening crackdown against student protesters.”
“The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” said Judge Geoffrey Crawford at an April 30 hearing. “Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released.”
Crawford also compared Trump’s crackdown to the Red Scare and said that period of history wasn’t one that people should be proud of.
🚨🇵🇸BREAKING: MOHSEN MAHDAWI IS FREE!
Mahdawi, a student leader from the pro-Palestine movement Columbia University who was detained by ICE, has officially be released!
In the 2 weeks since his unjust arrest, people across the country and world have waged a committed campaign… pic.twitter.com/r0dqj2QLy0
— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) April 30, 2025
“For anybody who is doubting justice, this is a light of hope and faith in the justice system in America,” Mahdawi told a crowd outside the courthouse after his release. “We are witnessing the fight for justice in America, which means a true democracy, and the fight for justice for Palestinians, which means that both liberation are interconnected, because no one of us is free unless we all are.”
“I am saying it clear and loud,” he added. “To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”
“I am saying it clear and loud,” Mahdawi said, the Columbia student who was just released. “To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you.” https://t.co/RIxGzN6ixw pic.twitter.com/P8UE3otMzP
— Liz Crampton (@liz_crampton) April 30, 2025
After a judge ordered Columbia student Moshen Mahdawi to be released, he gets bold & announced, “To President Trump and his cabinet, I’m not afraid of you.”
You will be removed from this country even if we have to send the corrupt judge with you. pic.twitter.com/FWQJwzUYk4
— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) April 30, 2025
“Today’s victory cannot be overstated. It is a victory for Mohsen who gets to walk free today out of this court,” said Shezza Abboushi Dallal, one of Mahdawi’s lawyers. “And it is also a victory for everyone else in this country invested in the very ability to dissent, who want to be able to speak out for the causes that they feel a moral imperative to lend their voices to and want to do that without fear that they will be abducted by masked men.”
Mahdawi, a permanent U.S. resident and green card holder for the past decade, was arrested by immigration officials on April 14 during his naturalization interview to become a United States citizen.
According to a recent legal brief from Mahdawi’s attorneys, the citizenship appointment had been a trap, as ICE agents intended to ambush the Columbia student and send him to a detention facility in Louisiana, where the Trump administration is holding Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.
A judge blocked Trump from transferring Mahdawi out Vermont before agents could transport him.
A court filing submitted in the case by the Justice Department included a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio claiming that Mahdawi’s presence in the United States could “potentially undermine” the Middle East peace process.
Earlier this month, Vermont Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) visited Mahdawi at the ICE detention center where he was being held.
“I am centered, I am clear, I am grounded, and I don’t want you to worry about me,” Mahdawi told Welch. “I want you to continue working for the democracy of this country and for humanity. The war must stop.”