BREAKING: Judge orders release of pro-Palestine student detained by ICE, who celebrates with defiant statement

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From ABC News: A federal judge in Vermont ordered the release Wednesday of Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was arrested two weeks ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following his citizenship interview, while his case proceeds.

“The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said at a hearing Wednesday. “Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released.”

Mahdawi, addressing supporters outside the courthouse following his release, called the judge’s decision “a light of hope.”

“Judge Crawford, who ruled to release me against all of the heinous accusations, horrible attacks, chills of speech, First Amendment violations — he had made a very brave decision to let me out,” Mahdawi said. “And this is what justice is. And for anybody who’s doubting justice, this is a light of hope, a hope and faith in the justice system in America.”

“To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi said.

The report explains that Mahdawi was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank before moving in 2014 to the U.S., where he has been a legal resident for the last 10 years. He was arrested at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Vermont on April 14, where he was preparing to take a citizenship test.

Mahdawi’s attorney has claimed, “He’s being detained based solely on his First Amendment rights — his speech.”

Mahdawi co-founded an organization called the Palestinian Student Union with fellow foreign national Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, also a Hamas sympathizer who is still currently in custody for his role in leading violent anti-Israel and anti-American protests, as well as allegedly lying on his visa application.

ABOUT THIS JUDGE: Judge Geoffrey Crawford, 70, is a senior U.S. district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont and former associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. He was nominated in May 2024 by Barack Obama, and confirmed in June 2014 by the U.S. Senate in a 95-0 vote.

As Mahdawi was released Wednesday morning, wearing a Palestinian scarf, he was greeted by a crowd of cheering supporters, many waving Palestinian flags.

“To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi defiantly declared, as he celebrated his release.

Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) earlier demanded the release of multiple pro-Hamas activists, and then shared another post celebrating that Mahdawi has been set free.

READ MORE from ABC News.

CBS 60 Minutes interviewed Mahdawi in December 2023. He was asked about his initial reaction when he heard about the deadly Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas against Israel.

Mahdawi did not voice any horror over what was done to the Israelis, but instead said, “I started praying, knowing that there will be a huge level of revenge from the Israelis, and I was praying that this would not be the result, because it would be disastrous.”

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