Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, who was released from US immigration detention last month, has graduated from Columbia University.

Mahdawi, a green card holder who was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a citizenship interview on April 14 as part of a crackdown on student demonstrators, was released after an order by a US district judge in the state of Vermont on April 30.

Several students cheered for Mahdawi as he walked across the stage wearing a keffiyeh on Monday.

Mahdawi, who earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Columbia's School of General Studies, later joined a vigil outside Columbia's gates, raising a photo of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody.

"Nor the Trump administration, nor Columbia University, nor any power in this world will stop us from being and continuing to be humans," he told the crowd.

A letter calling for Mahdawi's deportation, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, accuses him of using threatening rhetoric toward pro-Israeli bystanders at protests. However, a November 2023 video obtained by CBS News shows Mahdawi, to the contrary, leading chants against a protester who made an antisemitic comment.

Mahdawi has not been convicted of any crimes.

Suppressing pro-Palestine voices

His detention was part of a slew of executive actions by Trump administration to deport foreign nationals deemed to have "hostile attitudes" toward the US, including a crackdown on what he called antisemitism, which resulted in the deportation of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests.

On March 8, authorities arrested Khalil, who led the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University last Spring. Trump hailed his arrest and said it was the "first of many."

A few days after Khalil's arrest, Trump's claim came due after another pro-Palestine student, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, was arrested. His attorney said he was arrested because of the Palestinian identity of his wife.

After the arrest of Suri, authorities went after another pro-Palestine student, Momodou Taal, asking him to turn himself in.

On March 25, Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student, said she sued the Trump administration to stop her deportation from the US over her participation in a pro-Palestine protest last Spring.

Also on March 25, Rumeysa Ozturk, who is a Tufts University PhD student, was kidnapped in broad daylight by US authorities over criticising Israel's carnage in Gaza.