US Reinstates Deportation Proceedings for Palestinian Student Mohsen Mahdawi
Al Jazeera Staff
The US Board of Immigration Appeals has reinstated deportation proceedings against Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi. Mahdawi, arrested last year for pro-Palestinian protests, says the Trump administration is weaponizing immigration law to silence him. The move follows the dismissal of an immigration judge who had blocked the deportation.
The US Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has reinstated deportation proceedings against Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi, according to court filings submitted by his attorneys. In February, immigration judge Nina Froes had rejected the Trump administration’s effort to deport the Columbia University student, ruling they failed to meet their burden of proof and disallowing evidence as inadmissible. However, Judge Froes was dismissed by the Trump administration last month.
The BIA, which sits within the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, overturned Judge Froes’ decision. Mahdawi was arrested last year during an interview with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and held for two weeks without being charged. His lawyers say he was arrested under a little-known legal provision allowing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to order the deportation of individuals deemed to cause “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
In a statement, Mahdawi said: “The administration is trying to punish and deport me—a stateless Palestinian refugee from the occupied West Bank—because they oppose my advocacy for peace and human dignity and equal rights for Palestinians. But I am not afraid and believe that justice will prevail in both the United States and Palestine.”
President Trump has intensified crackdowns on pro-Palestinian movements by seeking to deport foreign protesters, threatening to freeze funding for universities where protests occur, and monitoring the online speech of immigrants. Experts and activists accuse the Trump administration of stifling free speech and academic freedom, while these efforts have also faced legal and judicial obstacles. In March, the Trump administration sued Harvard University for billions of dollars, alleging the school violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students following Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
