US appeals court overturns order releasing pro-Palestinian advocate Mohsen Mahdawi
NEW YORK, July 21 – A U.S.appeals court on Tuesday overturned a 2025 ruling that ordered the Trump administration to release pro-Palestinian advocate Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration detention, finding that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.Mahdawi, 35, was one of several non-citizen students who were placed in deportation proceedings last year after taking part in demonstrations against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The arrests prompted court challenges that placed Republican President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration against the right to free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S.Constitution.Tuesday’s decision from a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals stopped short of backing the Trump administration’s push to deport non-citizens in the U.S.lawfully on the basis that their presence in the country runs counter to U.S.
foreign policy — a practice that rights groups say infringes on free speech.But taken together with another decision earlier this year in the case of pro-Palestinian advocate Mahmoud Khalil, the ruling could make it more difficult for non-citizens detained in immigration jails to quickly seek their release on the grounds of an alleged violation of their First Amendment rights.DECISION HINGES ON JURISDICTIONMahdawi, a West Bank-born Columbia University student, was arrested in April 2025 upon arriving for an interview for his U.S.citizenship petition.
Vermont-based U.S.District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered him released on bond two weeks later, ruling that he enjoyed the same First Amendment free speech rights as U.S.
citizens.In overturning that ruling, the 2nd Circuit panel said Crawford did not have jurisdiction over the case because it should have been resolved in immigration court first.The judges did not order Mahdawi’s re-arrest.U.S.
immigration courts, which conduct deportation proceedings, are overseen by the Justice Department.Dist...