Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student detained by the federal government last month, penned a column for the New York Times where he said that President Donald Trump's administration "orchestrated a trap" against him.
And he questioned "who will be next."
Mahdawi should have been at his citizenship naturalization interview when the Department of Homeland Security stepped in.
"It dangled the prospect of becoming an American citizen, only for masked agents to apprehend me after I finished the interview and signed a document saying I was willing to take an oath of allegiance," he wrote on Friday. "Government agents separated me from my lawyer, who had gone to the appointment with me. They planned to whisk me from my home state, Vermont, to a detention facility in Louisiana."
Mahdawi was released Wednesday after a federal judge ordered that he be "released on bail, as he fights his deportation," MSNBC reported.
The student has been part of a pro-Palestinian protest effort at Columbia. Others have similarly been targeted, he said, so he wasn't shocked to be taken.
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"It came after other arrests of students for exercising their right to free speech in opposing Israel’s relentless killing and destruction in Gaza," he said. So, he was prepared with legal advisors and in contact with his federal officials.
Mahdawi said he lucked out by chance — they "missed the flight to Louisiana by minutes."
"Those few minutes changed the course of my legal case and, ultimately, led to my freedom from detention because I was able to fight for my rights on fair ground. Unlike other students who continue to languish in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, I’ve been afforded the 'privilege' to seek justice while not in prison," wrote Mahdawi.
Mahdawi fears that the effort to deport him is part of a larger message from the Trump administration attempting to quash "dissent" while "free speech be damned."
"It seems willing to shield an extremist Israeli government from criticism at the expense of constitutional rights, all while suppressing the possibility of a peaceful future for both Palestinians and Israelis, a future free of trauma and fear," he complained.
"Ultimately, I sought American citizenship not only because I did not want to lose the freedom I enjoyed as a permanent resident but even more so because I believe in the principles and values of democracy, which this country stipulates in its founding documents. While America has not always lived up to those values, like Dr. King, I believe they serve as a promise of what’s possible," he wrote.
It's those freedoms he fears are under attack for him and others like him.
He warned that when the government comes after protesters, it is the beginning of something worse.
"Once the repression of dissent, in the name of security, becomes a key objective of a government, authoritarian rule and even martial law are not far off," wrote Mahdawi.
"All Americans should ask themselves: What is left of our democracy, and who will be targeted next?" he closed.