A judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from deporting a Palestinian student and legal permanent resident of the United States who is pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University.
Earlier in the day, Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents during what he thought was a naturalization interview in Vermont. Mahdawi took an outsized role in pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia's campus and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia alongside fellow activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was recently detained by immigration authorities.
A federal District Court in Vermont issued a one-page order directing the Trump administration to refrain from deporting Mahdawi or moving him out of the state, as happened to Khalil, who was taken to Lousiana.
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Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, noted on X that the judge in the case appeared to be leaning earlier in the day in favor of Rumeysa Ozturk's release from detention in a separate case.
A videoshared by CBS News correspondent Lilia Luciano showed Mahdawi being taken into custody.
"Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity," Mahdawi's attorney Luna Droubi told The Intercept. "He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech."