Student protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi has appeared at the Vermont State House to help set up a legal defense fund to help immigrants like him face deportation hearings.

He appeared on Thursday for nearly a week after Mahadavi himself was detained for nearly 16 days, nearly 16 days after his pro-Palestine advocacy.

President Donald Trump's administration aims to expel Mahadawi and other student activists to demonstrate, citing a Cold War-era law that allows foreign nationals who are deemed to have adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.

Despite being released on bail, Mahdawi continues to face deportation proceedings. He reflected on his time at a press conference, and he and state officials announced the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund.

“If you want to go by the legal task, I’m kidnapped or detained,” Mahdawi said with a smile.

“Not the support and love I have received from the people of Vermont, the people of Vermont and the people of Vermont – I probably wouldn’t be here yet today.”

Mahdawi has entered the national focus amid student protests at Columbia University, an Ivy League school in New York City that has been at the forefront of pro-Palestine advocacy.

Mahdawi himself is a legal permanent resident of the United States, Palestinian, and grew up in the Far'a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. He publicly described the oppression he said he experienced there, including the deaths of family and friends at the hands of the Israeli military.

Mahdawi has spoken out in opposing military movements since Israel launched a war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

As an undergraduate at Columbia University, he helped establish student groups such as DAR: the Palestinian Student Association and Columbia University’s segregation. The latter played a leading role in protesting the connections between schools and organizations related to Israel and its military activities.

But President Trump described the protest as “illegal” and promised to crack down on non-citizen participants.

On March 8, Mahdawi's colleague at DAR, Mahmoud Khalil was the first student protester to be detained for his role in the national student protest movement. Others have since been detained, including Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk, who said he has done nothing more than writing columns about the Gaza war.

Just over a month later, on April 14, Mahdawi was ostensibly appointed in Colchester, Vermont, which was his U.S. citizen application. However, immigration officials were waiting for the scene to arrest him and he was handcuffed.

Mahdawi is charged with no crime. However, the Trump administration accused him of harassing Jewish students and leading "family protests", although no evidence has been provided to support the allegations.

"His remarks about the Israeli war proved his terrorist sympathy," a recent document from the Department of Homeland Security said.

Mahdawi's detention has filled Vermont politicians with dynamics on both sides of the political field. Republican Gov. Phil Scott called on the federal government to release any evidence that Mahdawi posed a threat to national security and condemned the secret way he was arrested.

"How this is done," Scott wrote in a press release.

“The power of the federal administration is huge, but not infinite, nor absolute.”

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Peter Welch visited Mahdawi in a prison in the Northwest State Correctional Institution in Vermont to raise awareness about his case.

Finally, on April 30, the federal district court held that Mahdawi had no flight risk and released him on bail, warning that the government's actions could be interpreted as an attempt to "close the debate."

In a public appearance on Thursday, Mahdawi thanked his fellow Vermont for their support and called on the state to hold role models for others.

He said to the crowd: "Home is where you feel safe and loved. And the people around you, they are your people, and you are my people."

"It's a message of hope and light that our humanity is much greater than what we divide. Our humanity is much greater than unjust laws. Our humanity is much greater than Democrats or Republicans, blacks or whites in urban or rural areas."

Mahdawi also described how he prayed on his knees every night when he was detained, an undocumented farm worker prayed before going to bed.

"I think his prayers were answered today," Mahadawi said of the Legal Defense Fund.

The fund organizers said they hope to raise $1 million for immigrant families in Vermont to “build a lasting safety net.” The payment will fund training and hiring legal personnel to deal with what they call the immigration “crisis”.

“Vermont will take action to ensure that no one is facing deportation, detention or family separation and no representation,” state Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale said. “This will be embedded in our civic infrastructure in ways we have never achieved before, and we hope that there will be long-term benefits beyond this direct crisis.”

Vermont state treasurer Mike Pieciak added that the fund will ensure justice is not only reserved for those who can afford it.

"This effort has nothing to do with politics. This effort is about principle," he said. "The fundamental right to due process means if someone has no access to legal representatives, especially when they navigate in a system that is as complex and high-stakes as U.S. immigration law."