NEW YORK — US immigration enforcement detained a Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader in Vermont on Monday.

The detention of Mohsen Mahdawi, a student originally from the West Bank, was part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on non-citizen activists that started with the detention of Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil last month.

Mahdawi was arrested when he went to an immigration office for an appointment related to his citizenship process, according to a statement from several Vermont legislators led by Senator Bernie Sanders. The statement said Mahdawi lived in Vermont and was a legal permanent US resident.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database said Mahdawi was in ICE custody, without specifying a location. ICE did not respond to a request for more information.

Several attorneys are representing Mahdawi in a federal court in Vermont. The judge in the case, William K. Sessions III, ordered that Mahdawi not be removed from the US or Vermont “pending further order” from the court.

Mahdawi was a vocal participant in the anti-Israel protests that rocked Columbia last year, appearing in media outlets like

© The Times of Israel