Columbia Philosophy Major Again Faces Deportation Threat
Last April, Mohsen Mahdawi, then a philosophy major at Columbia University, was attending a US citizenship application interview in Vermont when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents wearing hoods and masks took him from the building, put him into an unmarked car, and drove off.
[Mohsen Mahdawi. Photo by Jessica Rinaldi.]
The government appealed that decision, though, and today Mahdawi is back in court with, as one source puts it, the possibility of “the fearful outcome that he will be reimprisoned and then deported.”
The Boston Globe reports:
The appeal largely centers on whether the Vermont judge had jurisdiction to intervene in an immigration case. But in its court filings, the government also points to Mahdawi’s 2015 visit to the Vermont gun shop to argue he is a violent antisemite who poses a risk to the public.
The Globe delves into conflicting reports over whether Mahdawi at the time said things to a gun shop owner and a volunteer at a museum about his having killed Jews or him liking killing Jews.
Mahdawi has vigorously disputed [those allegations] in a sworn statement, and one of his attorneys, Luna Droubi, dismissed them at an April court hearing as “cartoonishly racist hearsay.” US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford reached a similar conclusion, suggesting locals may have “fabricated” their stories. Close friends can’t square the allegations with what they describe as a decadelong commitment to peaceful advocacy.
Yesterday, a vigil was held in support of Mahdawi at which members of the Columbia Department of Philosophy spoke, and at which was read a statement issued by the department:
A few months ago, members of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University publicly expressed their horror and dismay when one of their students, Mohsen Mahdawi, was detained in Vermont by agents of the Department of Homeland Security. The Philosophy Department repeats its dismay once more today on learning of the potential reversal of the court judgment that granted Mahdawi his release. We continue to convey our sympathy and support to Mohsen, to his family, and to his friends. We continue to call upon the Provost and Acting President of Columbia University to state their willingness to assist, through the provision of material and legal resources, any students of the University targeted or detained seemingly only for having exercised their right to the free and peaceful expression of political opinion.
The current case is expected to be lengthy.
While the APA board agrees that in general philosophers should be able to freely express their opinions (e.g., on an ethical question like genocide), the board members feel deeply divided on this particular issue for completely understandable reasons.
Moreover, I agree with all your comments that we shouldn’t alienate the MAGA base any further. Otherwise, they’ll withdraw their support for the philosophy profession and lose all the trust they’ve already placed in us.
This is laughable. Some groups have the infinite license to commit ethnic cleansing, while others have zero right to resistance? Need to engage with the Maga base? Do they get to share in the beachfront property? What a joker.
I think they genuinely were joking. Being a wise guy and all that.
WiseGuy is a tenured professor at an R1 university who publishes with friends at JPhil only, and is profoundly proud of himself for including two female authors in the last week of his Intro to Philosophy course (though, he is sad that he had to take the Kripke paper out; occasionally, he thinks he should stand up for the importance of Kripke’s contribution and change the syllabus back to the old one). WiseGuy blames the anti-genocide protests for Trump’s victory, and thinks Democrats’ economic policies are just reasonable. He misses the good old days of the Bush-era conservatism. He thinks he is owed a named lecture at the APA, but of course, he understands the constraints of the organizers these days. He is not happy about the New York mayoral election. But above all, WiseGuy believes in the principle of neutrality. He is a man principles. Though he remembers to apply them only when it comes to certain groups of people. But still, never too late to apply your principles, right?
This comment appears to be AI-spam. First, there is no reference to the APA in the post or any of the linked articles, yet this comment begins, “While the APA board agrees that in general philosophers should be able to freely express their opinions (e.g., on an ethical question like genocide), the board members feel deeply divided on this particular issue for completely understandable reasons.” Second, there are no other comments here, but it concludes, “I agree with all your comments that we shouldn’t alienate the MAGA base any further.”
It’s all a non-sequitur, and the only possible sense I can make of the last sentence (about MAGA support for “the philosophy profession”) is that it’s an unhelpful joke. Much more likely this is AI-spam.
I understand your concern but it’s not spam. Wiseguy is an occasional contributor to DN with their own distinct style.
It’s not AI, and not spam. It’s (obviously) satire inspired by the APA’s recent explanation of how it goes about determining which stances to take.
Please sign this petition to help keep him free! Currently over 1k signatories. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScoFrpZwfMK_J0R5shyvgfiSI1hfR8JO4nY_BJSLwd56S30_w/viewform
This article forgot to mention the death threats he received from students on campus, and how their powerful dads networked in Congress to get him into ICE detention.
The cruelty is the point, as the truism goes. And the arbitrariness is part of the cruelty. They hate us. They hate the Humanities in general and they hate the very idea of an examined life.
Don’t dehumanize your opponents, nor underestimate them. For all her flaws, it would be absurd to apply that to, for instance, Bill Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman.