Columbia Protester Fights Deportation Order

Columbia University graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi is fighting the Trump administration after a judge ordered him deported last week for his pro-Palestinian activism.

The Trump administration jailed Mahdawi last year for 16 days for his protest activities but appeared to lose its fight to remove him from the country in February when an immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against him. (The Trump administration later removed two judges who ruled against its efforts to deport Mahdawi and another international student, Rümeysa Öztürk, for participating in activities protected by the First Amendment.)

Now the deportation effort against Mahdawi is back in full swing.

Last week, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that Mahdawi, a Palestinian refugee who has lived in the U.S. since 2014, was deportable. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Mahdawi, said in a news release that the decision was followed by an order from a judge to remove Mahdawi but that he remains protected from deportation while he appeals the decision.

“The BIA decision is based on the allegation, in a memo purportedly from [U.S. Secretary of State] Marco Rubio, that Mr. Mahdawi’s speech in support of Palestinian human rights undermined U.S. foreign policy (the so-called ‘foreign policy bar’ of the Immigration and Nationality Act),” ACLU officials wrote in the news release. “The use of this provision to target the speech of noncitizens has been found to be likely unconstitutional by several federal courts.”

Mahdawi has not been charged with any crimes but was one of multiple international students arrested by the Trump administration last year for exercising their free speech rights. 

Another pro-Palestinian protester with Columbia ties, Mahmoud Khalil, has also been targeted for deportation related to his protect activities. Like Mahdawi, he has not been charged with a crime. Khalil is currently petitioning the Supreme Court to halt his speech-related deportation.