It was just a few months ago when pro-Palestinian student activists seemed to be getting arrested and whisked away from college campuses left and right. Mahmoud Khalil. Rumeysa Ozturk. And our guest on this week’s episode of More To The Story: Mohsen Mahdawi.
 

The Trump administration made clear in its first few months that it wanted to silence pro-Palestinian activists who opposed Israel’s response to Hamas’ devastating October 7, 2023, attack. Many were arrested by plainclothes ICE officers and detained without a way of challenging their detention. But now, things are shifting. Last week, a judge released Khalil, the Columbia University student who led some of the campus’s protests and was the first known activist detained under the Trump administration’s crackdown. That decision followed a similar one for fellow Columbia student activist Mahdawi.

Mahdawi grew up in a West Bank refugee camp and witnessed a number of violent incidents before moving to the US a decade ago. While at Columbia, he became a prominent Palestinian activist and pushed for the university to divest from Israel. He was soon targeted by the Trump administration, which called his very presence and activism harmful to US foreign policy interests. 

Today, he’s back in his home state of Vermont after being released on bail by a federal judge and is suing the Trump administration over his detention. His legal case isn’t over. But he’s speaking out about his arrest on this week’s episode of More To The Story with Al Letson. As the Trump administration continues its immigration raids around the US, their conversation is an illuminating look at the way this one ICE arrest played out—and how Mahdawi came out on the other side.

- Josh Sanburn, More To The Story producer