Chuck Darwin<p>MOHSEN K. MAHDAWI <br>arrived at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Colchester, Vermont, on Monday. <br>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. <br>Instead, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him and began the process to deport him to the occupied West Bank. <br>Mahdawi, a leader of the campus protest movement against Israel’s war on Gaza, became yet another <a href="https://c.im/tags/green" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>green</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/card" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>card</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/holder" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>holder</span></a> arrested and facing removal.<br>“Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity,” <br>Mahdawi’s attorney Luna Droubi said in a statement to The Intercept. <br>“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"<br><a href="https://theintercept.com/2025/04/14/ice-columbia-student-mohsen-mahdawi-citizenship-interview/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">theintercept.com/2025/04/14/ic</span><span class="invisible">e-columbia-student-mohsen-mahdawi-citizenship-interview/</span></a></p>