Palestinian Protester on His Way to Citizenship Test Arrested by ICE in VT

From Akela Lacy at The Intercept, Palestinian Student Leader Was Called In for Citizenship Interview — Then Arrested by ICE (archive):

Mohsen K. Mahdawi arrived at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Burlington, Vermont, on Monday. A Palestinian student at Columbia University, he hoped that, after 10 years in the U.S., he would pass the test to become a naturalized citizen.

Instead, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him and began the process to deport him to the occupied West Bank. Mahdawi, a leader of the campus protest movement against Israel’s war on Gaza, became yet another green card holder arrested and facing removal.

“Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity,” Mahdawi’s attorney Luna Droubi said in a statement to 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.”

Windsor County state senator Rebecca White took a video of Mahdawi being escorted in handcuffs (also on Reddit & YouTube) from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Colchester, VT by hooded and masked men to a group of unmarked vehicles.

(thx, caroline)

• crime
• legal
• Mohsen Mahdawi
• Vermont