Mohsen Mahdawi is 34 years old. He's been an undergraduate at Columbia University for 15 years. Not a doctoral candidate. Not a medical student grinding through residency. An undergrad. For a decade and a half.
Columbia charges $72,800 a year in undergraduate tuition. Mahdawi spent that entire stretch not earning a degree but organizing pro-Hamas encampments that blocked Jewish students from accessing their own campus.
The Second Circuit Court just vacated a lower court ruling that had shielded Mahdawi from deportation, finding that the activist judge who issued it lacked jurisdiction. ICE is now moving forward with removal proceedings to send him back to Jordan.
Sen. Eric Schmitt didn't mince words. "15 YEARS as an undergrad student," he wrote, calling out the phenomenon of "forever students" — foreign nationals who exploit student visa programs to remain in the country indefinitely while contributing nothing but chaos. "America is not a taxpayer-funded campus for foreign agitators," Schmitt added.
Mahdawi wasn't some quiet kid who lost his way academically. Nick Sortor, who broke the court's decision, described him as "one of the architects of the Columbia University riots" — the same encampments that made national news, drew police intervention, and turned an Ivy League campus into a staging ground for people who celebrate October 7th.
This case runs parallel to Mahmoud Khalil, another Columbia student and Hamas supporter whose deportation case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The pattern is identical: enter on a student visa, never actually finish the degree, use the campus as a base of operations for political activism that has nothing to do with education, then lawyer up when the government finally notices.
The student visa system was designed for people who want to study in the United States, earn a credential, and either contribute to the American economy or return home. It was not designed as a 15-year residency permit for anyone who keeps re-enrolling. The fact that Mahdawi maintained "student" status at 34 while organizing campus occupations tells you everything about how easily the system is exploited when nobody's watching.
The Second Circuit fixed the jurisdictional problem. ICE is handling the rest.
Most people finish college in four years. Some take five. Mahdawi took fifteen and got a boarding pass.
