U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., visited Mohsen Mahdawi in a Vermont jail Monday, sharing a snippet of their conversation to social media.
And on Tuesday, more than 100 people rallied at the Statehouse to call for his release and what they characterized as the federal government’s circumvention of due process.
“I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the inevitability of justice and the deep belief of democracy. This is the reason I wanted to become a citizen of this country, because I believe in the principles of this country,” Mahdawi told Welch in a recorded conversation posted to social media.
Mahdawi, a Palestinian student organizer at Columbia University who lives in the Upper Valley, was arrested by federal agents in Colchester last week during an interview for U.S. citizenship. Masked federal officers ushered Mahdawi into a vehicle, and he was later detained at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.
Lawyers for Mahdawi quickly filed a lawsuit arguing his detention was unlawful, and a federal judge in Vermont ordered that he not be taken from the state. A hearing in his case is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Following Mahdawi’s arrest, top state Senate Democrats called on Gov. Phil Scott to end the state’s agreement with federal immigration authorities, which allows the feds to detain people not charged with crimes in Vermont’s six prisons.
In response, Scott said he’d consider ending or revising the contract, which is set to expire in August, but wanted to weigh what was in the “best interest” of people detained by federal immigration officials. Advocates have begrudgingly argued that at the moment, they would prefer detainees remain in Vermont rather than be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in far away states.
Tuesday, dozens of Mahdawi’s supporters flooded the Statehouse as part of a protest organized by Vermont Interfaith Action. In conjunction, Senate Democrats held a press conference alongside advocates and House colleagues, decrying overreach by ICE and highlighting legislation under development that would expand protections for immigrants.
Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, who serves as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at the press conference that rather than litigating the state’s prison agreement with the feds, he was working on legislation that would restrict the types of immigration detainees who could be held in Vermont’s prisons. People detained by immigration authorities in Vermont should be held here rather than sent out of state, he said, but ICE has also been detaining a second category of people in Vermont.
“The second group, these are the folks who are transported to Vermont after they’ve been detained in another district. These are the folks who were taken away from their family, friends and lawyers, people who were brought here so that their due process is disrupted,” Hashim said. “It’s my opinion that Vermont should not be complicit in supporting ICE’s human trafficking operation by allowing our state facilities to hold detainees who are arrested in other districts.”
As of Tuesday, there were 25 people in Vermont’s prisons detained for federal immigration authorities, according to Vermont Department of Corrections data.
Asked about Mahdawi’s detention in Vermont, Nick Deml, the state’s corrections commissioner, said in a statement that “many questions remain unanswered” about the Vermont resident’s detention by immigration authorities, which he called an “uncertain situation.”
He added that the Department of Corrections was “best positioned to ensure respect for (Mahdawi’s) due process rights, his access to attorneys of his choice and our federal courts.”
The Vermont House adopted a resolution Tuesday “objecting to the manner and circumstances” of Mahdawi’s detention and calling for him to be “released immediately.”
In Welch’s filmed conversation with Mahdawi, the Upper Valley resident assured those concerned about him that he is in “good hands” and shared a message to people watching.
“I don’t want you to worry about me. I want you to continue working for the democracy of this country and for humanity,” he said.
Clarification: This story was updated to remove part of an ambiguous quote from Mohsen Mahdawi included through editing error.
