Recently freed Palestinian activist and Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi has made it clear he has no intention to stop speaking against Israel and the Trump administration, saying that immigration officials’ intimidation tactics “will not silence me.”

Mahdawi is an undergraduate philosophy student who led peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, and he said he was accepted into the university’s master’s program to study international affairs. Despite being a legal permanent resident of the United States for the last 10 years, immigration officials arrested Mahdawi at his citizenship interview and detained him in a Vermont state prison for 16 days.

A judge ordered the 34-year-old’s release on April 30 after he challenged his arrest, making him among the first of detained pro-Palestinian students to be freed. Mahdawi sat with CBS Evening News in an interview that aired Monday, his first media appearance since getting released.

“I wasn’t afraid when they detained me, I was not afraid when I [got] out of detention, and I am not afraid to share my voice,” he told correspondent Lilia Luciano, who also interviewed the activist one day before his detention.

Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, immigration enforcement officials across the country have been carrying out a campaign of arresting or abducting college students who speak out in support of Palestine. Many of those students participated in campus protests to call for the U.S. to stop arming Israel in its destruction of Gaza and for universities to divest from companies that do business with the Israeli government.

Before his detention, Mahdawi recounted that he had been in hiding since March after learning about the detention of his fellow Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil. A judge ruled that Khalil can be deported, a decision Mahdawi had described as “heart-wrenching.”

Because of his multiple media appearances as a student activist, Mahdawi said he experienced severe threats, intimidation and doxxing by far-right pro-Israel groups like Betar and Canary Mission. Betar had previously told HuffPost that it submitted the names of Mahdawi and two others to the Trump administration for potential targeting. On April 14, he was arrested.

“Masked agents loaded with guns separated me, isolated me from my lawyer, did not allow for any conversation of like, ‘Let me see the order that you have,’ or, ‘What’s happening?’” the activist told Luciano. “And I said I am a peaceful man.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that Mahdawi, who is from the occupied West Bank, can be deported under the Immigration and Nationality Act because his presence allegedly “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”

“It’s laughable,” Mahdawi said Monday. “A person who has been vocally advocating for justice and peace is undermining U.S. policy?”

In an email to HuffPost on Tuesday, Betar spokesman Daniel Levy maintained without evidence that Mahdawi is a “terrorist” and that Israeli forces “await him if he returns” to his homeland. Mahdawi has no record of antisemitism, and he has claimed the groups doxxing him are spreading misinformation to frame him as a bigot.

U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled Mahdawi’s argument “substantial” that he was arrested in retaliation for speech the government disagrees with. The activist’s actions are protected by the First Amendment regardless if he “were a firebrand,” Crawford’s ruling said, and that offending political opponents does not qualify him for detention.

“My freedom signals a light of hope,” Mahdawi told CBS. “I was reassured in my heart of the belief that justice will prevail and the justice system is functioning.”

Upon his release, Mahdawi spoke directly to President Donald Trump, telling him he is unafraid of the administration. On Monday, he reiterated that lack of fear and committed to continue speaking out.

“There is this philosophy of intimidation, of punitive justice,” the activist said. “So I wanted to share to them that you can do whatever you want. You will not silence me.”