Another Columbia University student was arrested on Monday after arriving
for a US citizenship interview in Vermont. A friend
of Mohsen Madawi posted a video online of him being
taken from the immigration office by Department of Homeland Security
officers. After the arrest, a district judge ordered
President Donald Trump and other senior officials not to deport
Madawi from the country or take him out of the
state. According to a court filing by his lawyers
, Madawi, born and raised in a refugee camp
in the West Bank, was a Colombia student and
pro-Palestinian activist with plans to return for a master's degree
this fall. US Senator Bernie Sanders and others from
Vermont's congressional delegation labeled the detention immoral, inhumane,
and illegal, adding the legal US residents should be
afforded due process and released immediately. US Immigration and
Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately respond to a request
for information. Madawi's case bears resemblance to that of
Palestinian student activist Mahmud Khalil, another Colombia student who
was detained in early March and taken to a Louisiana
detention facility for deportation. A US immigration judge in
Louisiana ruled on Friday that Khalil can be deported.
That allows the Trump administration to proceed with its effort
to deport foreign pro-Palestinian students who are in the United
States legally and have not been charged with any crimes
. The Trump administration has resisted other court orders on
immigration matters. On Monday, it said it does
not plan to seek the return of Salvadoran citizen Kilmar
Abrego Garcia to the United States, after he was
mistakenly deported and sent to a prison in El Salvador
, despite an order to do so, which has
been backed by the US Supreme Court.