Columbia department backs student detained by Trump, urges Ivy League school to act

Columbia University’s philosophy department strongly rebuffed Wednesday the Trump administration’s detention and attempted deportation of one of its students, urging the Ivy League school to come to the assistance of Mohsen Mahdawi, Anadolu news agency reported.

“We express our horror and dismay at the fact that a legal resident of the United States — someone who has been accused of no crime — should be detained in this manner,” it said in a statement posted prominently on its website.

“We call upon the Provost and Acting President of Columbia University to assist by all means, including through the provision of material and legal resources, any Columbia student targeted or detained—and seemingly only for having exercised their right to the free and peaceful expression of political opinion,” it added.

Mahdawi was arrested Monday as he attended an appointment for his US citizenship in the northern state of Vermont. The Palestinian student is a legal permanent resident of the US who has resided in the country for a decade.

Mahdawi is one of a growing number of students and graduates who have been detained by the Trump administration after voicing opposition to Israel’s indiscriminate war on the besieged Gaza Strip. The administration has sought to cast the detained individuals, whom it wants to deport, as antisemitic and supporters of terrorism.

READ: Trump praises Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest as ‘first of many to come’ 

Mahdawi served as a prominent campus leader during the 2023-2024 student-led demonstrations, and was featured in a 60 Minutes interview in December 2023 in which he sharply denounced anti-Semitism, saying, “To be anti-Semitic is unjust. And the fight for the freedom of Palestine, and the fight against antisemitism go hand-in-hand. Because injustice is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Mahdawi was born and raised in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank before he came to the US in 2014, and is currently studying to complete his undergraduate degree in philosophy.

Like others who have been detained, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeyza Ozturk, Mahdawi has not been charged with a crime. Instead, the Trump administration is seeking to deport international students on claims they pose a threat to US foreign policy and national security.

An internal State Department memo reviewed by the New York Times suggests the Trump administration is arguing that Mahdawi’s presence in the US could “potentially undermine” the Middle East peace process. Rubio wrote that the types of protests that Mahdawi led could reinforce antisemitism globally and threaten the US’ foreign policy goal of ending Israel’s war in Gaza “peacefully,” according to the Times.

Rubio alleged that Mahdawi “engaged in threatening rhetoric and intimidation of pro-Israeli bystanders.” The top diplomat did not elaborate.