Mohsen Mahdawi Faces Conservative Judges as Trump Administration Tries to Lock Him Back Up

The Trump administration will argue before a panel of three conservative federal judges Tuesday to put Columbia University graduate aspirant Mohsen Mahdawi back behind bars One judge has already expressed encouragement for the governing body s right to imprison Mahdawi a Palestinian aspirant protest leader They re arguing that I should be put in prison just for speaking up against the genocide of my people Mahdawi recounted The Intercept Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Mahdawi away in handcuffs in April after he arrived at what he thought was his naturalization interview to become a U S citizen as The Intercept first disclosed Since a federal judge ordered Mahdawi s release on bail in May the Trump administration has been working to re-imprison him and remove him from the country Speaking to The Intercept Mahdawi connected his affair to President Donald Trump s larger project to crush his political opponents Trump has deployed the National Guard to cities he perceives as strongholds for his rivals Mahdawi noted while facilitating Israel s ongoing genocide in Gaza and backing plans to take over Gaza and parts of the West Bank There is a very clear connection that I see between what is happening in America and what s happening in Israel Both of them don t want democracy Mahdawi announced They want strength and domination and control On Tuesday attorneys for the U S leadership will argue in federal appeals court to overturn Mahdawi s release on the grounds that the federal court that freed him was operating outside of its jurisdiction All three judges on the panel were appointed by Republican presidents two Trump appointees William J Nardini and Steven J Menashi and a George W Bush appointee Debra Ann Livingston Menashi has already argued that it was not within the court s jurisdiction to question the cabinet s detention of Mahdawi and R meysa zt rk another apprentice ICE abducted earlier this year The U S and Israel want strength and domination and control The situation carries crucial weight not only for Mahdawi s future but also for broader free speech protections under the Trump administration s attacks It will center on whether a district court judge had jurisdiction to hear the matter challenging Mahdawi s detention a detail that while technical could restrict judges abilities to review unlawful detention in cases like Mahdawi s if the panel rules in the administration s favor The regime has made the same argument of every one of the cases this jurisdiction argument mentioned Luna Droubi an attorney on Mahdawi s company referring to ongoing cases involving other pro-Palestine students Separately Mahdawi s legal unit is working on his pending immigration event contending with another administration system Trump has been using to crack down on his critics No hearing date has been set There Is No Protection Whatsoever Mahdawi returned to Columbia University this month stepping back onto the campus where he first became a target of the Trump administration s sweeping attacks on pro-Palestine students Now working on his master s in peacemaking and conflict resolution at Columbia s School of International and Masses Affairs Mahdawi criticized his school for capitulating to the Trump administration s demands to overhaul its curriculum and policies related to diversity speech and protest activity on campus Columbia is one of the largest schools that have the ability and the power to fight back Mahdawi disclosed And it has decided willingly without showing any level of resistance to capitulate and to give the Trump s administration what they sought Related How Columbia s Leadership Refashioned the University in Trump s Image In July Trump applauded Columbia for agreeing to pay a million settlement to his administration over claims that the school failed to protect the civil rights of Jewish students after the October attacks Trump declared Columbia had committed to ending what he called its ridiculous diversity equity and inclusion policies and protecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus Amid Trump s attacks across higher mentoring Columbia has agreed to change its disciplinary process its diversity and equity policies and to review all of its programs related to Middle Eastern studies Still Acting President Claire Shipman declared publicly in late July that the school retains control over its academic and institutional decisions Read our complete coverage Chilling Dissent Mahdawi explained Columbia administrators betrayed him before he was taken by ICE and he s worried it will happen again He announced he hasn t received contact from any personnel in the university administration since he was detained nor since his release even as he faces ongoing legal battles that could affect his studies and determine whether he is deported to the West Bank where he grew up in a refugee camp A Columbia spokesperson explained they thought senior administrators had been in touch with Mahdawi but did not provide more information Before his ICE interview in April Mahdawi described The Intercept that he pleaded with Columbia to give him safe harbor on campus as he feared being abducted after watching what happened to his colleague Mahmoud Khalil They ignored me he declared in an interview earlier this month To this moment none of the executives have reached out to me That the administration wielded its authority on private institutions is so devastating Droubi Mahdawi s attorney announced that cowardice was leading universities to perpetuate the Trump administration s authoritarianism That the cabinet wielded its authority on private institutions is so devastating to us all We should all be horrified that academia is being stifled in this way Mahdawi reported Trump is attacking universities because they re often the birthplace of critical thinking mobilization and mass consciousness The federal regime has tried to paint Mahdawi as antisemitic and violent but his colleagues have described him as a peacebuilder and someone willing to work across ideological lines I don t know when the moment might come that Columbia would compromise my safety and what kind of deal that they have made with the Trump administration that would definitely hand me over again on a plate of gold he reported There s no protection whatsoever Related The Columbia Architecture Pushing Behind the Scenes to Deport and Arrest Participant Protesters Mahdawi and another one of his attorneys Cyrus Mehta both also pointed out that right-wing Zionist groups like Betar and Canary Mission had worked to bring him into the regime s crosshairs When Betar put it on Twitter it seemed to follow like ICE then picked him up Mehta noted referring to one of several posts in the months leading up to Mahdawi s arrest We ve seen that with others also when they ve been targeted by Betar then ICE has followed up The whole campaign of my detention did not come out of nowhere Mahdawi noted It came from pro-Israel groups that highlighted my profile and attacked me and encouraged the U S regime to come and pick me up The post Mohsen Mahdawi Faces Conservative Judges as Trump Administration Tries to Lock Him Back Up appeared first on The Intercept