Judge blocks deportation of Palestinian activist who led protests at Columbia

An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian graduate student who led protests at Columbia University against Israel and the war in Gaza.

In a ruling made public by Mahdawi’s attorneys on Tuesday, the judge, Nina Froes, said she had terminated the case because of a procedural misstep by government attorneys, who failed to properly certify an official document they intended to use as evidence.

The Trump administration may appeal the decision. But the ruling marked the latest setback for the federal government’s sweeping effort to expel pro-Palestinian campus activists and others who expressed criticism of Israel. 

Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident of the U.S. for the last decade, was arrested by immigration agents last April during what he thought was a citizenship interview. He was released two weeks later after an order from a federal judge.

In the months since, the government has continued its effort to deport him, citing a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing noncitizens can be expelled from the country if their presence may undermine U.S. foreign policy interests.

Government attorneys submitted a photocopy of the document to the immigration judge, but they failed to certify it as required under federal law, the judge wrote.

“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 said in a statement released by his attorneys. “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice.”

Mahdawi has also mounted a separate case in federal district court arguing that he was unlawfully detained. That case remains ongoing, his lawyers said.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security who is leaving her post next week, cast Mahdawi as a leader of “pro-terrorist riots” whose visa should be revoked in a statement to The Associated Press.

“No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that,” she added.

The Trump administration has arrested and sought to deport several international students who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests, accusing them of antisemitism and citing a federal law that lets the secretary of state block visas for people who could pose “adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The students have sued the government over their detention, arguing they are being punished for First Amendment-protected speech.

The government has accused Mahdawi of “threatening rhetoric and intimidation of pro-Israeli bystanders” during protests on Columbia’s campus, which he has denied.

Another Columbia activist and green card-holder, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested in March 2025 and is currently fighting a bid to deport him. An immigration judge ordered him to be deported in September, which he is appealing. On a separate track, a U.S. district court judge freed him from immigration detention last summer, a ruling that was overturned by a panel of appellate judges last month, though Khalil is expected to challenge that move.

And last month, a separate immigration judge blocked the government’s attempt to deport a Tufts University graduate student, Rümeysa Öztürk, over an op-ed criticizing the school’s response to the war in Gaza.