Federal judge orders release of detained pro-Palestinian Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student from the West Bank, after Mahdawi spent more than two weeks in immigration detention following his abrupt arrest during a naturalization interview.

The 34-year-old permanent U.S. resident was detained by armed Department of Homeland Security agents on April 14 while seeking U.S. citizenship in Vermont. Mahdawi has been held since then at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, and his case has drawn national attention over the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian student activists.