Columbia Pro-Palestinian Protest Leader Seeking Citizenship Detained by ICE

The detention of Mohsen Mahdawi comes several weeks after the detention of fellow Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was an associate of Mahdawi.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian man who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University, is detained at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Colchester, Vt., on April 14, 2025. Christopher Helali via AP

Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 14 during a naturalization interview in Vermont.

The move comes weeks after the detention of Mahdawi’s Columbia associate, Mahmound Khalil, as the Trump administration continues to target non-citizen students in a crackdown on alleged support for Hamas during university protests in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by the terrorist group on Israel.