Press Release: 5/1/2025
Pressley Applauds Release of Mohsen Mahdawi, Renews Call for Release of Rümeysa Öztürk, Mahmoud Khalil, and Others
Yesterday, Pressley Rallied With Colleagues at State Dept. to Demand Mahdawi’s Release and Due Process for All
Pressley Recently Met with Constituent Rümeysa Öztürk, Mahmoud Khalil at ICE Detention Centers in Louisiana
WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) issued the following statement applauding the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, Columbia University student and lawful permanent resident who was detained on April 14 after his naturalization interview in Vermont. Yesterday, at a rally outside the State Department, Congresswoman Pressleyjoined Congresswoman Becca Balint (VT-AL)and their colleagues to call for Mahdawi’s immediate release and demand due process for all. Congresswoman Pressley recently met with constituent Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil, two students who have been unlawfully detained by ICE and transported to Louisiana from their homes in retaliation for their protected speech.
“Mohsen’s release is an encouraging step in the fight to defend our democracy and the constitutional rights that Donald Trump is working overtime to rip away,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley. “Due process and free speech are fundamental rights. I am relieved and encouraged that Mohsen was released from detention today, and I continue to demand the immediate release of my constituent Rümeysa Öztürk, as well as Mahmoud Khalil, and the residents across the nation who may not have made headlines but similarly have been unjustly detained by this hostile administration. We have not forgotten about you and we will fight for your rights daily.”
Mahdawi, a Vermont permanent resident for the last ten years, was abruptly arrested earlier this month by masked, hooded ICE agents without being charged with a crime. In response to his arrest, Rep. Balint, Rep. Pressley, and 66 other House Democrats demanded to know the Administration’s alleged reason for his arrest from Secretaries Rubio and Noem and received no response.
A full transcript of her remarks at yesterday’s rally is available below and video is available here.
Transcript: Pressley Colleagues Demand Due Process for All at “Free Mohsen Mahdawi” Rally
U.S. State Department
April 29, 2025
We keep using the word shame, and this is a shame that we find ourselves here.
And it is also a sham.
These extremist acts to disappear people from society have nothing to do with immigration. They have nothing to do with law and order. They have everything to do with power.
And Donald Trump is abusing power. That is what dictators do. Dictators mean to silence any dissenting voices – and the only way to beat a dictator is with defiance, and that’s what brings us all here today.
I’m so glad that you all are awake. The other side wants you to be asleep. They’re anti-woke because they want a citizenry that is ignorant and uninformed, that is indifferent to the suffering of their neighbors, and that is inactive.
So you’re already winning, and you give me hope and make it easier to practice the discipline of hope – because you could have been anywhere else today, but you chose to be here to say that these abuses of power will not go unchecked.
I know that I am speaking to the choir as I go to refer to my notes and enumerate these facts, but I preach to the choir for one reason, because I need the choir to sing.
When you leave here, I need you to sing about these injustices. I need you to sing about the fact that this is not about whether or not we can weather the next four years, that this is about shaping the next one hundred.
I need you to sing about the fact that this is the moment and the opportunity to be better ancestors than descendants.
Who is Mohsen?
Mohsen was raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. He is a man who loves and is loved, who is connected to family, who is connected to community.
Mohsen is a green card holder and lawful permanent resident of the United States.
Mohsen is a scholar, a senior at Columbia University and co-founder of Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union.
And now, shamefully, Mohsen is a political prisoner.
Instead of celebrating his graduation and preparing for his Master’s program in the fall, he was on the verge of becoming a US citizen, after 10 years of living and learning and contributing in the United States.
Instead, his life has been upended, and he is awaiting his future from the confines of a detention center. Shameful.
In Donald Trump’s America, Mohsen’s story is becoming shamefully all too familiar to all of us.
He was whisked away and disappeared off of the streets, just like my constituent, Somerville resident and PhD student, Rümeysa Öztürk.
Make no mistake, these abductions are not isolated.
They are part and parcel of Trump’s precise, intentional, and coordinated attack on our democracy and our constitutional rights.
They serve no purpose other than to silence dissent, restrict due process, and to sow fear in our communities – which is exactly how a dictator operates.
But again, we will not allow these abuses of power to go unchecked or unanswered.
Last week, I went to conduct some real-time oversight. I visited our sister Rümeysa Öztürk and our brother Mahmoud Khalil in Louisiana at the ICE detention facilities where they are being held.
Allow me to digress for a moment to remind people that this is a for-profit carceral system, and the same way that there are billionaire corporations that benefit from for-profit prisons and mass incarceration, the same billionaire corporations are benefiting from for-profit detention centers and the disappearing of immigrants. These things are all connected.
So if someone at home is saying, “Why should I care about this?”
If you care about mass incarceration, you need to care about mass deportation. If you care about mass deportation, you need to care about mass incarceration.
So last week, I went for a wellness check, which also again, was real-time congressional oversight. What I saw and heard from Rümeysa and Mahmoud was harrowing, heartbreaking, and infuriating.
Mahmoud spoke of growing up in Syria under Assad. He said, “I know what an authoritarian regime looks like – and this is it.”
Rümeysa thanked me for being there, along with my colleagues in our CODEL and said the women at this detention facility have questioned if God has forgotten about us, if the world has forgotten about us.
They are being denied proper medical care, deprived of sleep. They’re not receiving nutritious meals, no religious accommodation. A nurse, without consent, removed Rümeysa’s hijab.
The cruelty is the point.
Look family, what’s happening to Mohsen, Rümeysa, Mahmoud and so many others is a damning injustice. They’ve been charged with no crimes, and are being detained simply for exercising their right to free speech, for speaking out about the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza.
Now let me be clear, regardless of your position on that issue or any other, this should outrage everyone and anyone with a moral conscience.
I do not journey to rural Louisiana because I am a Democrat. I journeyed to rural Louisiana because I’m a human being who gives a damn about other human beings.
In America we have a fundamental right to freedom of speech, and that’s what makes us who we are. So this blatant, flagrant violation of our First Amendment rights through these abductions should outrage everyone, regardless of your personal beliefs.
And as I close, because our freedoms and our destinies are tied, in his letter to Angela Y. Davis, James Baldwin wrote, “If they take you in the morning, dear sister, they will surely be coming for us that night.” And that is the truth.
Today, it is Mohsen, it is Rümeysa, it is Mahmoud, and tomorrow it could be you.
It could be you for reading a banned book. It could be you for suffering a miscarriage. It could be you for practicing Diversity Equity and Inclusion.
So today, we refuse to accept these abuses as inevitable. We demand due process and accountability for all, and we will keep working to protect our Constitution and everyone who calls this country home.
Free Mohsen Mahdawi. Free Rümeysa Öztürk. Free Mahmoud Khalil. Save our democracy.
This is not about weathering the next four years. This is about shaping the next one hundred.