Key facts
- A US appeals court reversed a lower court's decision ordering the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi.
- The appeals court found the lower court lacked jurisdiction to intervene in Mahdawi's immigration detention case.
- The ruling could hinder non-citizens' First Amendment claims for release from detention.
- Mohsen Mahdawi, a Green Card holder and Columbia University student, was detained by the Trump administration.
- Mahdawi can seek review of his First Amendment claims after exhausting immigration court options.
A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's decision that had ordered the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration detention. The ruling from the second US circuit court of appeals in New York City overturns a previous decision by a federal judge in Vermont, which had likened the government’s efforts to expel him and other activists to McCarthyist repression.
The panel found that the judge had overstepped his authority by intervening in Mahdawi’s case before it had moved fully through the immigration court system. This ruling mirrors a separate appellate panel’s decision earlier this year against Mahmoud Khalil, a former classmate of Mahdawi’s at Columbia University. The appeals court did not weigh in on the merits of Mahdawi’s claim that he was unconstitutionally targeted for criticizing Israel, stating he can seek review from federal courts over those claims once he has exhausted his options in immigration courts.
Mahdawi, 35, is now appealing an order of removal issued against him by the Board of Immigration Appeals. Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, representing Mahdawi, stated that the government cannot detain or deport their client as the appeals process proceeds. Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and became a legal permanent resident of the US in 2015. He was arrested by immigration agents during a citizenship interview in April 2025, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to expel noncitizens who criticized Israel and protested against the war in Gaza. He was released two weeks later and graduated from Columbia soon after.