A Palestinian student at Columbia is freed after his arrest at a citizenship interview

Mohsen Mahdawi, centre, looks on during a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A judge on Wednesday released a Palestinian student at Columbia University who led protests against Israel’s war in Gaza and was arrested by immigration officials during an interview about finalizing his U.S. citizenship.

Immigration authorities have arrested and detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians.

Mohsen Mahdawi is among the first of those students to win his freedom after challenging an arrest. He walked out of a Vermont courthouse Wednesday and led hundreds of supporters in chants including “No fear” and “Free Palestine.” He said people must come together to defend both democracy and humanity.

“Never give up on the idea that justice will prevail,” he said. “We want to stand up for humanity, because the rest of the world -- not only Palestine -- is watching us. And what is going to happen in America is going to affect the rest of the world.”

Mahdawi, 34, has been a legal permanent resident for 10 years. He was in a Vermont state prison since April 14. In his release order, U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said Mahdawi has raised a “substantial claim that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.”

“Even if he were a firebrand, his conduct is protected by the First Amendment,” the judge wrote, adding that offending political opponents or alarming the State Department doesn’t make him dangerous enough to justify detention.

The U.S. government argues they can remove Mahdawi from the country under the Immigration and Nationality Act. That’s because Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his presence and activities “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”

A government attorney said Wednesday that Mahdawi is a national security threat, pointing to a 2015 FBI investigation into allegations that he made threatening comments about Jews at a gun shop -- but the judge said the FBI appears to have determined those accusations were fabricated.

Mahdawi will appear remotely before an immigration judge in Louisiana on Thursday, his lawyers said. The U.S. attorney’s office did not respond to messages seeking comment on whether it will appeal his release.

According to a court filing, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. He organized campus protests at Columbia until March 2024 and cofounded the school’s Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the U.S. and graduate student who was arrested in March.

Khalil has been held for nearly eight weeks in a Louisiana detention center, missing the birth of his first child. An immigration judge ruled that Khalil can be forced out of the country as a national security risk.

In another high-profile case, Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, was detained in March over what her lawyers say is apparent retaliation for an op-ed piece she co-wrote in the student newspaper.

More than 1,000 college students nationwide have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review. The federal government has since announced it will reverse the termination of legal status for international students after many filed court challenges, a government lawyer said Friday.

The judge referred to the Ozturk case and others like it in his ruling, saying such arrests are reminiscent of nationwide raids targeting suspected anarchists and communists in 1919 and 1920 and deportations during the McCarthy era of the 1950s.

“Security is like liberty in that many are the crimes committed in its name,” he wrote, quoting from a dissent in a 1950 case.

Mahdawi’s release allows him to travel outside his home state of Vermont and attend graduation next month in New York. He recently completed coursework at Columbia and planned to begin a master’s degree program there in the fall.

The Ivy League university has faced criticism from some students for agreeing to implement a host of policy changes demanded by the Trump administration. After Mahdawi’s release, school spokesperson Millie Wert said every person in the country deserves due process regardless of their citizenship status.

Outside the Vermont courthouse, Mahdawi directly addressed President Donald Trump and his Cabinet, saying, “I am not afraid of you.”

“If there is no fear, what is it replaced with?” he said. “Love. Love is our way.”

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack and Kimberlee Kruesi also contributed.