On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said that he was going to take away visas from "antisemitic foreigners" on college campuses. But his first target, Mahmoud Khalil, is not a visa holder; he is a legal permanent resident and the husband of an American citizen, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents discovered as they were detaining Khalil.
Now, the Trump administration is trying to deport a Palestinian-American immigrant on the cusp of citizenship. Ten-year legal U.S. resident and Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi showed up at an immigration center in Vermont on Monday for what he thought was his naturalization appointment. Instead, ICE agents swooped in and "refused to provide any information as to where he was being taken or what would happen to him," according to a statement by Vermont lawmakers.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, referred Reason to the State Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
