Student protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi has appeared at the Vermont State Capitol to help launch a legal defense fund to support immigrants like her, who are facing deportation hearings.
His appearance on Thursday comes almost a week after Madawi himself was released from immigrant detention after nearly 16 days in detention in his pro-Palestinian advocacy.
President Donald Trump’s administration sought to expel Mahdawi and other student activists for their demonstrations, citing Cold War era laws that allowed the removal of foreigners deemed to have had a disadvantageous foreign policy influence on the United States.
Although released on bail, Mahdawi continues to face deportation proceedings. He looked back at the time behind the bar at a press conference when he and state officials announced the Vermont Immigration Law Defense Fund.
“If you want to go for legal tenure, I have been unfairly lured or detained,” Mahdawi said with a wry smile.
“And the support and love we received from the people of Vermont – representatives of the people of Vermont – I may not have been here between you today.”
Mahdowy joined the National Spotlight, an Ivy League school in New York City, as a leader in the student protests at Columbia University.
A legal permanent resident of the United States, Mahdawi himself was Palestinian and grew up in the occupied West Bank Faaa refugee camp. He publicly described the oppression he said he had experienced there, including the death of his family and friends at the hands of Israeli military.
Since Israel began the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Mahdawi has spoken openly against the military movement.
As an undergraduate in Colombia, he helped find students groups like DAR: The Palestinian Student Association and Columbia University’s apartheid group. The latter has played a leading role in protesting the school’s relationship with Israel and its organizations involved in its military operations.
However, President Trump described such protests as “illegal” and pledged to crack down on non-citizens.
On March 8, Mahdawi colleagues in Dal, Mahmoud Khalil were the first student protesters to be detained for his role in student protests across the country. Others later, including Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, say supporters were more than just writing papers about the war in Gaza.
Just a month later, on April 14, Madawi arrived for an appointment in Colchester, Vermont, ostensibly for an application for US citizenship. However, as immigration officers were waiting to arrest him at the scene, he was led by handcuffs.
Mahadawi was accused of being free of crime. However, the Trump administration has accused him of harassing Jewish students and leading “pro-Hamas protests,” but no evidence has been provided to support those claims.
“His rhetoric regarding the war in Israel certifies his terrorist sympathy,” a recent document from the Department of Homeland Security said.
Mahdawi’s detention galvanized Vermont politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. Republican Gov. Phil Scott called on the federal government to publish evidence that Mahdawi poses a threat to national security, and denounced the secret attitude of his arrest.
“What cannot be justified is how this action was carried out. Law enforcement officials in this country should not operate in the shadows or hide behind masks,” Scott wrote in a press release.
“The power of the federal administrative department is immeasurable, but not infinite and unabsolute.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat, visited Mahdawi behind a bar at the Northwest Vermont State Correctional Facility to raise awareness about his case.
Ultimately, on April 30, the federal district court ruled that Mahdawi had no risk of flight and released him on bail, warning that government actions could be interpreted as an attempt to “close the debate.”
In his public appearance on Thursday, Mahdawi thanked his fellow Vermonters for showing support for him and called on the nation to act as an example for others.
“Home is where you feel safe and loved, and the people around you, they are your people, you are my people,” he told the crowd.
“This is a message of hope and light that our humanity is much greater than what separates us. Our humanity is much greater than unjust law. Our humanity is much greater than Democrats and Republicans, black or white, urban or rural areas.”
Mahadawi also explained how he saw an undocumented farm worker praying on his lap before going to bed every night when he was in custody.
“I think his prayers were answered today by this initiative,” Mahdawi said of the Legal Defense Fund.
The fund’s organizers said they hope to raise $1 million to “build a permanent safety net” for immigrant families in Vermont. They said they will hire training and employment legal staff to respond to what they described as an immigration “crisis.”
“Vermont will take action to ensure that no one is represented solely by deportation, detention and family separation,” Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale said. “We hope this will be embedded in our civic infrastructure in ways that we have never achieved before, and we will benefit from long-term benefits beyond this immediate crisis.”
Vermont treasurer Mike Peaak added that the fund will ensure that justice is not reserved just for those who can afford it.
“This effort is not about politics. This effort is about principles,” he said. “The fundamental rights of the due process make little sense, especially when the system is complicated and builds a high interest as high as US immigration law, if someone has no access to a legal representative.”
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