A judge has released a Palestinian student activist who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University and was arrested by immigration officials during an interview about finalizing his U.

A Vermont judge ordered the release of Columbia student and activist Mohsen Mahdawi from federal detention, where he was held after a naturalization interview turned into an ICE arrest.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian Columbia student who had been detained by immigration authorities when he went to his U.S. citizenship interview, has been released after a federal judge's order in Vermont on Wednesday.