WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Some 50 people participated in a silent vigil at Veterans Memorial Park on Tuesday to show solidarity for Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian refugee with ties to the Upper Valley, who the U.S. government has been seeking to deport as part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.
The vigil was scheduled for 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the same time Mahdawi was set to appear in a federal appeals court in New York City.
“Vermonters are known for showing up. It’s a good reputation to have,” said 83-year-old Karen Bixler, of Bethel, who was among the first to arrive at the vigil.
Mahdawi, a graduate student at Columbia University, and Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, both appeared before the federal appeals court in separate cases on Tuesday.
They came to the attention of the Trump administration for their pro-Palestinian views.
Both are represented by attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU.
As the scheduled time for Mahdawi’s hearing approached, Bixler set up her lawn chair in a shady spot in the park, while others congregated on the sidewalk and held up signs for passing cars to see.
“We all belong here. We will defend each other,” read Norwich resident Kathleen Shepherd’s sign.
Mahdawi has become a “spiritual leader” for Shepherd because of his loyalty to pacifism in the face of adversity, she said. A practicing Buddhist, Mahdawi has long advocated for non-violent discourse and empathy between dissenting groups in his work as an activist.
“I believe in peace above everything,” said Shepherd, who is a member of a Quaker group in Hanover.
By 2:15, about 25 people had formed a circle in the stretch of shade between a broad tree and a stone World War II memorial. Some set up lawn chairs; others sat cross-legged in the grass, eyes closed and phones out of sight.
Violet Kitchen, who works a short walk away in the Schulz Library at the Center for Cartoon Studies, chose a spot next to the tree’s thick trunk.
These days, it’s easy to get “so wrapped up in the national news” and forget “what’s happening in our own backyard,” they said. But there are “many immigrants here (and) many vulnerable people in Vermont,” they added.
While people meditated outside, Main Street Museum volunteer Joie Finley set up a live stream of the court hearing inside the museum.
Finley is a member of UV Rise Up, a grassroots activist group that helped organize the vigil in collaboration with Three Rivers Indivisible and Upper Valley Visibility Brigade, two other collectives that have cropped up in the area in the wake of Donald Trump’s second election last year.
“There are really good people out there,” Finley said of those attending the vigil. “(They have) really good energy, and I hope they send it south.”
On April 14, Mahdawi, a green card holder, was detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, following his naturalization interview in Colchester, Vt. His legal team promptly filed a habeas corpus petition, arguing his detention at Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Vt., was unlawful.
On April 30, a federal judge ordered Mahdawi’s release from the facility, but his deportation case remains ongoing.
Öztürk spent six weeks in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana after she was detained by plain-clothed officers in Somerville, Mass. on March 25.
The court did not reach a decision regarding either case at Tuesday’s hearing. An exact timeline for the ruling has yet to be set, but the cases have been fast-tracked.
“I just want him to come home,” said Salaam Odeh, a close friend of Mahdawi’s who attended the Tuesday vigil. “The people of Vermont love him,” she said. “And he loves his community.”
