An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a 34-year-old Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested by federal agents last year during a US citizenship interview in Vermont.
Lawyers for Mahdawi gave details of the decision in a court filing on Tuesday with a federal appeals court in New York, which had been reviewing a ruling that led to his release from immigration custody in April.
“I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi, who is a permanent US resident, or green card holder, said in a statement.
He continued: “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice. Nearly a year ago, I was detained at my citizenship interview not for breaking the law but for speaking against the genocide of Palestinians.”
The judge, Nina Froes, had ruled last Friday that the evidence that the Trump administration had submitted to the court was not admissible, due to an inability to “meet its burden of proving removability”. According to the judge’s order, the government failed to properly authenticate a memorandum purported to be signed by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
“This decision highlights the importance of federal court review of immigration proceedings, especially when first amendment and other constitutional violations are alleged,” said Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s Center for Democracy, who represented Mahdawi alongside other groups.
“Had we been unable to pursue Mohsen’s release in federal court, as the government is arguing should be law of the land, he would still be in detention today on a charge that the government itself couldn’t even bother to substantiate 10 months later with basic forms of authentication,” he added. “The government should take the immigration judge’s hint and drop this absurd case for good.”
Mahdawi was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and immigrated to the US over a decade ago. In 2021, he enrolled at Columbia University, in New York, where he was the president of the Buddhist association and co-founded the Palestinian student union.
He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in April last year and held in detention for over two weeks, based on the government’s citation of an obscure provision of immigration law that seeks to revoke the legal status of individuals deemed threats to US foreign policy. He was never charged with a crime.
His lawyers argued that his arrest was retaliatory and “part of a policy intended to silence and chill the speech of those who advocate for Palestinian human rights”.
Mahdawi was released on bail after filing a habeas petition in Vermont in which he argued he was wrongfully detained in retaliation for his constitutionally protected speech.
In May, mere weeks after being released from ICE custody, he graduated from Columbia, drawing huge applause as he walked across the stage. In the fall, he returned to campus to pursue his master’s degree at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Judge Froes’s decision is the latest blow to the Trump administration’s campaign to deport students involved in pro-Palestinian activism. Earlier this month, an immigration judge ruled that the Trump administration is unable to deport Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University in Boston who co-authored a story in the school newspaper that was critical of Israel.
Reuters contributed reporting