Federal judge orders release of Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student arrested and detained by masked immigration agents after his naturalization interview in Vermont, has been released from detention while his case proceeds.
U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said Wednesday that Mahdawi’s detention for two weeks, “so far demonstrates great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime.”
Talking to supporters outside the Vermont federal courthouse, Mahdawi said his release sends a message that, “we, the people, will hold the Constitution accountable for the principles and values that we believe in.”
Mahdawi’s release comes with some conditions: He must stay in his home state of Vermont, though he is allowed to travel to New York City for his schooling and to meetings with his attorneys.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mahdawi is a green-card holder and lawful permanent U.S. resident who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The Trump administration has asserted that Mahdawi’s presence undermines its effort to combat antisemitism, NPR reported earlier this week.
His attorneys have said he was detained in retaliation for exercising his free speech rights in advocating for Palestinian human rights during campus protests last year against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
They acknowledged there’s a long road ahead on the case but celebrated the judge’s decision.
Mahdawi remained defiant on Wednesday.
“And I am saying it, clear and loud,” he said. “To President Trump and his Cabinet, I’m not afraid of you.”
Some of Mahdawi’s supporters quietly cried and held hands in the courtroom as Crawford read his decision, according to a reporter with Vermont Public Radio who was in the courtroom.
A proposed Bessemer data center faces new hurdles: a ‘road to nowhere’ and the Birmingham darter
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacles for the wildly unpopular project.
Birmingham Museum of Art’s silver exhibit tells a dazzling global story
Silver and Ceremony is made up of more than 150 suites of silver, sourced from India, and some of their designs.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
