WASHINGTON

US Sen. Peter Welch demanded the release of a Palestinian student from Columbia University who was arrested last week during a citizenship interview.

"I just met with Mohsen Mahdawi where he’s being held in Vermont. He was detained when he showed up for his citizenship interview.

"He should be released so he can become a citizen," Welch said Monday on X.

Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident and former student protest organizer at Columbia, was taken into custody at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in the state of Vermont.

Welch shared a video of his meeting with Mahdawi, who said he is staying "positive" by reassuring himself of 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 said, recalling that part of the foundation of the US is free speech and freedom of religion.

He rejected the remarks of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who previously claimed that Mahdawi’s activism “could undermine the Middle East peace process by reinforcing antisemitic sentiment."

"My activism…so he is basically describing being anti-war as antisemitic. How could that be possible when most of my partners at Columbia's campus and beyond are Jews and Israelis? My work has been centered on peacemaking," Mahdawi said, adding his dream is to see an end to the Gaza war and a peaceful resolution between Palestinians and Israelis.

He is the ninth student from the school who is facing deportation as part of a campaign to remove international students involved in Palestinian solidarity movements.

It is part of a slew of executive actions by President Donald Trump 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.