Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi released after order from US judge: Report

​​​​​​​By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - A Palestinian student from Columbia University who was arrested during a citizenship interview, was released after an order by a US federal judge, CBS News reported Wednesday.

“I am saying it clear and loud,” Mahdawi said outside the federal courthouse after his release, according to the Politico news website. “To President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”

Mohsen Mahdawi, who led a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University and has lived in the US for more than a decade, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents April 14.

Mahdawi's lawyer, Luna Droubi, previously said authorities had no legal basis for his detention, stressing that it is a "disgrace to the US Constitution."

A group of Democratic lawmakers gathered outside the US State Department late Tuesday to demand Mahdawi’s release, warning that his case is part of a broader pattern under the Trump administration of targeting students, immigrants and activists without due process, including Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate from Palestinian, and Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University. Both are detained in the state of Louisiana.

Mahdawi was the ninth student from Colombia who is facing deportation as part of a campaign to remove international students involved in Palestinian solidarity movements.

It is part of a slew of executive actions by President Donald Trump to deport foreign nationals deemed to have "hostile attitudes" toward the US, including a crackdown on what he called antisemitism, which resulted in the deportation of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests.