Students Are Winning in Court Against Trump’s Deportation Regime

Mohsen Mahdawi a Columbia University pupil arrested by the Trump administration during his citizenship interview was issued on bail on Wednesday in a notable accomplishment for students fighting the establishment s use of immigration enforcement as a means to silence dissent After Mahdawi s days in immigration detention Vermont District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered the immediate release of the pro-Palestine activist arguing in part that his continued detention would likely have a chilling effect on protected speech The judge also noted that Mahdawi is not a flight pitfall or a danger to the public Mahdawi s legal fight is far from over The U S permanent resident who was born in the West Bank will have to return to court to argue his habeas petition to block the leadership from detaining and deporting him But on Wednesday Mahdawi struck a defiant tone I am saying it clear and loud To President Trump and his Cabinet I am not afraid of you declared Mahdawi from the outside Vermont courthouse What we are witnessing now and what we re understanding is exactly what Dr Martin Luther King has mentioned before Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere Mahdawi a pacifist who stepped back from his activist work to focus on building bridges between Jewish and Israeli students and the Palestinian movement on campus also shared a message of unity and joint struggle What we are witnessing now and what we re understanding is exactly what Dr Martin Luther King has revealed before Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere he stated On April U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Mahdawi at his scheduled naturalization interview Mahdawi had previously been in hiding after ICE arrested his friend and fellow Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil fearing similar retaliation His attorneys argued that the interview was effectively a trap The ruling body is now trying to deport him back to the West Bank where he fears repression It s kind of a death sentence Mahdawi previously explained The Intercept Because my people are being killed unjustly in an indiscriminate way Related Bait and Switch Mohsen Mahdawi s Citizenship Trap While his legal battle is ongoing the decision marks a clear domination for the international students at the center of the Trump administration s crackdown on pro-Palestinian organizers We are hopeful that it will build momentum for the release of Mahmoud Khalil Rumeysa zt rk Dr Bader Khan Suri and other students and scholars detained for their speech in help of Palestinian rights Noor Zafar a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants Rights Project and a member of Khalil s legal association wrote to The Intercept On Tuesday a judge issued a key ruling in favor of Khalil a Syrian-born U S permanent resident The court ordered that Khalil s attorneys can argue in federal court that he was detained and targeted for expressing his political views Despite these victories both Khalil and zt rk a Tufts University graduate apprentice who had her visa revoked and was kidnapped off the street by ICE agents for writing an op-ed critical of Israel remain detained in Louisiana On Monday an appeals court paused an earlier court order transferring zt rk to Vermont Her lawyers argued that could mean she remains in the Louisiana detention facility notably without access to proper therapeutic care for months The post Students Are Winning in Court Against Trump s Deportation Regime appeared first on The Intercept