Updated 6:12 p.m.
An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested by federal agents in Colchester last year during a U.S. citizenship interview.
The judge, Nina Froes, ruled last week that evidence the Trump administration had submitted to show why Mahdawi should be removed from the country was not admissible in court, “as it lacked proper authentication” under judicial rules, according to a copy of the decision, which was shared by Mahdawi’s attorneys on Tuesday.
That evidence was a memo — attributed in news reports to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — stating that by leading campus protests, Mahdawi could “undermine” the Middle East peace process and threaten U.S. foreign policy goals. The Trump administration had also pointed to the same memo to justify detaining Mahdawi in the first place.
The student’s legal team, meanwhile, argues that he was detained in retaliation for promoting Palestinian rights and opposing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Mahdawi, who lives in White River Junction, helped found Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union.
Froes wrote that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, which includes U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, had argued the memo was “self-authenticating” — but said the court, which is located in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, disagreed.
“No witness was produced to explain what this document is, how it was obtained and to attest to its validity,” Froes wrote.
The Trump administration could appeal Froes’ ruling. Meanwhile, Mahdawi’s lawyers said in a court filing Tuesday explaining the judge’s ruling that they would continue to challenge the legal merits of the Palestinian student’s detention in U.S. District Court, which is separate from the immigration court system. The latter is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.
“This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice,” Mahdawi said in a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, which is part of his legal team. “In a climate where dissent is increasingly met with intimidation and detention, today’s ruling renews hope that due process still applies and that no agency stands above the Constitution.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon about the immigration court’s ruling.
Mahdawi was arrested by federal agents last April and was held in federal custody in a Vermont prison. Two weeks later, a federal district court judge in Vermont, Geoffrey W. Crawford, ordered the student’s release on bail while his case continued to be heard. The Trump administration is still in the process of appealing Crawford’s decision before a federal appeals panel in New York.
Froes’ ruling follows an immigration court’s decision in late January to block the Trump administration from deporting Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University who was detained in Vermont and other states last year.
