Mohammed Rashid walked free on Friday for the first time since he arrived in the U.S. as a stowaway in July 2024, after fleeing Gaza to escape Hamas.
Judge Natalie Smith in Chelmsford Immigration Court, in Massachusetts, granted Rashid a $20,000 bond Thursday after the 29-year-old Palestinian man had been detained for more than 15 months. Most recently, he was held at Northwest State Correctional Facility in Saint Albans, Vermont.
Rashid never expected he would be detained for so long. Now, Rashid said he can’t wait to reunite with his relatives, who are driving from Ohio to reach him.
“Fifteen months, it’s been long time, and I lost a lot of things there: family, (a house), everything, friends,” Rashid said in an interview, referring to what he lost since the Israel-Hamas war started.
What he most looks forward to doing now is talking with his mom.
“I didn’t speak to her since I was locked up,” he said.
Rashid received asylum only four months after his arrival, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appealed the judge’s decision, and Rashid remained detained. His case has been pending for more than 10 months with the Board of Immigration Appeals.
At the end of August, he was transferred to Vermont, and a group of lawyers with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project found out about him during one of their regular legal orientations to inform people held in ICE detention of their rights.
Andy Pelcher, one of Rashid’s attorneys, said he and his colleague, Emma Matters-Wood, were so shocked by Rashid’s story that they decided to take up the case with Nathan Virag, an attorney with the Association of Africans Living in Vermont.
The lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition to challenge the legitimacy of Rashid’s detention and went through two bond hearings in immigration court before ultimately obtaining his release on bond.
Going into Thursday’s hearing, Rashid said he was optimistic because he trusted his lawyers, but he was still nervous. He cried when the judge granted him bond.
Rashid said he hardly slept the night after the hearing.
“I was like, ‘I’m waiting for the ICE decision to release me,’” Rashid said. “I can’t wait. I want to just be out. It’s America. Like, it’s a dream.”
After ICE processed the bond, Pelcher and Virag went to Northwest State Correctional Facility and waited for Rashid to be released on Friday.
“He went to hug Andy, and then he went to hug me,” Virag said. “No words even describe the moment. He just kept saying over and over that he’s free.”
Now, he’s ready to start his new life.
“I actually want to look for a fashion job, model job, because it’s a dream for me to do this work. And I want to live in peace,” Rashid said. “I’m looking for this since I left my country, and I guess I’m gonna find it here.”
