One of the organizers of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University arrested

BarcelonaIn the United States it continues The trickle of arrests of students linked to university protests in support of PalestineThe latest arrest was Mohsen Mahdawi, one of the organizers of last year's protests at Columbia University. He was arrested on Monday when he arrived at the immigration services office in Colchester, Vermont, where he had been summoned. Mahdawi, a Palestinian student who has been living in the United States for ten years, thought the appointment was to advance his process of obtaining a US passport. Instead, he was detained by immigration agents, and the administration has initiated proceedings to deport him to the West Bank. This is the latest case of citizens who, despite living legally in the United States, face extradition.

As seen in a video posted on social media, Mahdawi is seen leaving a building handcuffed and escorted by agents, some with their faces covered, who force him into a car. "Mohsen Mahdawi has been illegally detained for no reason other than his Palestinian identity," said the student's lawyer, Luna Droubi, in a statement. The Intercept, The first media outlet to report this. "He came to this country hoping to be free to speak about the atrocities he witnessed, and he has been punished for this speech," he added.

His lawyers have filed a petition forhabeas corpus, claiming that the government is violating his rights and that his detention is in retaliation for his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. They have also asked a federal court for a temporary restraining order to prevent immigration authorities from transferring Mahdawi from Vermont or deporting him from the United States while his case is pending. Judge William Sessions, an Obama appointee, quickly granted the order.

Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank, where he lived until moving to the United States in 2014, according to his lawyers' petition for his immediate release. A philosophy student, Mahdawi was one of the leaders of the pro-Palestinian protests last spring, although he later said he was stepping back from the movement to focus on building bridges between the Jewish and Palestinian communities on campus.

A Drip of Arrests

Mahdawi's case adds to the arrests of other international students for their participation in last year's university protests against the Gaza war or to express opinions contrary to Israel. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, the government has expanded the "antisemitism" label to target speech opposing the Palestinian conflict.

On March 25, police arrested Rumeysa Otzurk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, for co-authoring an article critical of Israel in the university newspaper. The same week, Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian national and doctoral student at the University of Alabama, was also detained off campus by federal immigration officials. And a few weeks earlier, Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and leader of pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations, was arrested in New York.

Tricked into Arrest

According to The Intercept, Mahdawi asked university administrators to help him find a safe place to live to avoid being detained by immigration officers, but the center did not respond. After Khalil's arrest, Mahdawi went into hiding for more than three weeks. In this case, however, immigration authorities acted differently: instead of catching him on the street, they summoned him to take the citizenship exam at the offices in Colchester, where he was arrested upon arrival.

According to the outlet, he is the ninth Columbia University student facing deportation, while hundreds more have had their visas revoked. Mahdawi and Khalil's cases are among the few cases of legal permanent residents arrested, meaning their student visas have not been revoked, but rather authorities are seeking to invalidate them. green card.

Following Otzurk's arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured that more than 300 visas had already been withdrawn students who had participated in actions he described as "vandalizing universities, harassing students, and taking over buildings." In addition, last week the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that Social media posts will begin to be taken into account that they be considered "anti-Semitic" as a criterion for denying visas, work permits, and any immigration documents.