Comments
ACCORDING TO LIZ - Pope Leo XIV has doubled down on criticizing Trump’s wars of choice, asserting God doesn't bless those who drop bombs and calling the American president's threat to annihilate Iranian civilization "truly unacceptable.”
Then he urged people everywhere to reach out to their “political leaders … to ask them, tell them, to work for peace” reiterating that the message that “the world needs to hear today” is one of peace and diplomacy.
The Pope’s position provoked Trump to repeatedly spew diatribes against the Bishop of Rome, accusing him of being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
In response the Pontiff vowed he has “no fear of the Trump administration” and will continue to “loudly” proclaim the message of the Gospels.
Putting the upstart wanna-be King in his place.
So may we all.
When Mohsen Mahdawi, the Palestinian student activist arrested by ICE on April 14, 2025, walked out of federal detention in Vermont two weeks later, he told Trump: “I am not afraid of you.”
Talking to award-winning journalist David Goodman on the anniversary of his arrest Mahdawi stated: “I am not fighting to stay in this country; I’m fighting for justice in this country. And my fight is connected to the fights of so many other people who want to see justice in this country.”
He speaks for you and me.
Mahdawi has come a long way since U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford of Vermont ordered his release on bail on April 30, 2025 until the government actually made its case, comparing the student’s incarceration to the unlawful repression of free speech under McCarthyism, and admonishing ICE and the administration that “two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime.”
Mahdawi is Palestinian and a long time green card holder living in Vermont. He was still a student at Columbia University at the time of his arrest, receiving his diploma in philosophy just weeks after his release. Now enrolled in a master’s program on conflict resolution and peacemaking at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, Mahdawi is writing a book on activism.
His crime? Co-founding Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union long before this president was re-elected.
In its quest to demonize Mahdawi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the student’s advocacy for Palestinian human rights could “potentially undermine” the Middle East peace process.
Huh?!
During a naturalization interview in the process of becoming an American citizen at Vermont’s Colchester immigration field office, plainclothes ICE agents seized Mahdawi and attempted to send him to a detention center in Louisiana, far from support.
Because the interview was scheduled much earlier than anticipated, it raised red flags it could be a trap. Mahdawi’s State Senator, Rebecca White, whom he’d known for a number of years, advised him not to go but Mahdawi knew not appearing could also create a cascade of problems.
He then reached out to his federal House and Senate officials, Vermont Representative Becca Balint and Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch,requesting their intervention if things went south. He also created a Signal group chat entitled “Just in case – Mohsen” so he could contact friends if arrested.
These early alert systems were game-changers.
Sanders, Welch, and Balint together released a statement the day Mahdawi was detained calling the action by ICE “immoral, inhumane, and illegal.”
His legal team swiftly filed a habeas corpus petition against Trump claiming their client’s detention was unlawful, successfully obtaining a temporary restraining order before ICE could put him on a plane.
Mahdawi vs. Trump, in which the federal government argued that district courts had no jurisdiction in immigration matters, went before New York’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals in September.
The defendant’s lawyers claimed it was Trump’s flagrant and well-documented attack on freedom of speech by going after all students who spoke out against the president’s pal Netanyahu and the genocide Israel was perpetrating on the Palestinians of Gaza that should be on trial.
With the firing of Kristi Noem, the case hit a slight blip, but the Department of Homeland Security has redoubled its efforts to incarcerate Mahdawi again on immigration charges using the same frivolous arguments – that criticizing the Israeli government for its toxic actions rose to the level of a national security risk.
In a parallel facet of the case, an immigration judge in Massachusetts ruled in February that lawful permanent residents of the U.S. – like Mahdawi is and was – could not be detained on the basis of their political speech and advocacy, that Mahdawi’s activism was not a threat to foreign policy goals, and permanently blocked his deportation.
That judge, Nina Froes, then became one of six judges fired on April 11th as part of a purge of immigration judges standing in the way of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
One hundred and thirteen so far. And counting.
Mahdawi characterized her firing as part of a campaign of intimidation attacking all who disagree with Trump administration loyalists “including their own judges” reminding him of what ensued when judges dared to be impartial in Hitler’s Germany.
Terming it a clear weaponization of immigration law by the Trump regime meant “to silence dissent and punish those who dare to speak against Israel’s genocide and aggression.
“I stand not only for the freedom of Palestinians or for my own constitutional rights, but for the sacred promise that in America no human being should fear losing their liberty for exercising their First Amendment rights, including speaking for human rights and against wars.”
In Goodman’s podcast [[[https://content.blubrry.com/vermontconversation/VC_Mahdawi_04152026.mp3]]] Mahdawi expressed concern that the attacks on him were a harbinger of further sundering of American society under the Trump administration.
“The deterioration and destruction of the U.S. Constitution and of civil rights in this country that took place when the government came after me and other student activists are motivated by the same reason that the war is taking place in Iran, and that is shielding Israel from any criticism.
“The destruction in Iran, in Lebanon is just the U.S. supporting blindly Israel’s agenda and being dragged into a war that it doesn’t need.”
I believe that peace is possible without the use of violence.”
Mahdawi went on to say that the world is caught in a struggle between “the energy of fear and the energy of love. And the energy of fear is what is motivating Trump and Netanyahu and … the whole system that is trying to shun people and shut them down and scare them and intimidate them. This is why they basically wanted to make an example of me and many other students and why they are going after journalists and immigrant communities — to incite fear.”
“We have to function from a place of love, not a place of fear, and hold those who are causing harm accountable for their actions.”
This is a man who is a legitimate leader.
Due to his being born in a Palestinian refugee camp, Mohsen Mahdawi can never become president of the United States... but he certainly would be a huge improvement over the current occupier of the Oval Office.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
