Detained activist suspected immigration interview was trap

A university student and Palestinian activist arrested by US immigration authorities was worried that an American citizenship interview was a trap.

Mohsen Mahdawi, who has permanent US residency or “green card” status, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) when he turned up to the appointment on Monday.

One day before his arrest he told CBS News that he believed the interview could be a setup.

“It’s the first feeling of like, I’ve been waiting for this for more than a year,” Mr Mahdawi said. “And the other feeling is like, wait a minute. Is this a honey trap?”

Mr Mahdawi, a philosophy student at Columbia University in New York City who was due to graduate next month, was taken into custody in Colchester, Vermont.

Mr Mahdawi’s lawyer, Luna Droubi, said he was arrested “in direct retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinians and because of his identity as a Palestinian.”

“His detention is an attempt to silence those who speak out against the atrocities in Gaza. It is also unconstitutional.”

A court filing says Mr Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the US in 2014.

It describes him as a committed Buddhist who believes in “non-violence and empathy as a central tenet of his religion”.

Other campus activists, including Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, have also been detained.

Shortly after Mr Mahdawi was arrested, a federal judge in Vermont ordered that he not be removed from the state. Mr Khalil and Ms Ozturk have been detained at an Ice facility in Louisiana.

The BBC has contacted Ice for comment.

Mr Mahdawi and Mr Khalil are co-founders of Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union and were active in campus protests following the Hamas attack in October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli retaliation.

Mr Mahdawi’s lawyers said he “took a step back” from the protest movement in March 2024.

In December, he did an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes programme in which he accused Israel of genocide, a claim it denies.

Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at least 300 foreign students’ visas had been revoked in an effort to tackle antisemitism on university campuses.

The campus protest leaders have denied allegations of antisemitism.

“I want people to know that my compassion extended beyond the Palestinian people. My compassion is also for the Jewish people and for the Israelis as well,” Mr Mahdawi told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, shortly before he was detained by Ice agents.

On Tuesday, President Trump also suggested that US citizens could be detained and sent to abroad, including to the Cecot prison in El Salvador.

Legal experts broadly agree that such a move would be illegal under the US constitution and existing US law.