The arrest of Mohsen Mahdawi was a test of just how far President Donald Trump's power over immigrants could go. Mahdawi, a ten-year legal U.S. resident and a student at Columbia University, was at his interview to become a U.S. citizen earlier this month. But because he wasn't a citizen yet, the Trump administration argued that it could deport Mahdawi for his protest activity, and had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pick him up at the immigration center.
On Wednesday, however, a federal judge ordered ICE to free Mahdawi, who was born in a refugee camp in the Palestinian territories, while his case proceeded. "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 the hearing, according to ABC News. "Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released."
Although he didn't rule directly on Mahdawi's case, Crawford said that Mahdawi was likely to succeed on the merits, and that keeping him locked up would "likely have a chilling effect" on the First Amendment.
