World
US court overturns order releasing pro-Palestinian Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi
NEW YORK — A US federal appeals panel on Tuesday reversed a lower court decision ordering the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, opening the door to the re-arrest of a student protest organizer whom the Trump administration has spent more than a year trying to deport.
The ruling from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York overturned a previous decision by a federal judge in Vermont, which likened the government’s efforts to expel him and other activists to McCarthyist repression.
In their unanimous decision, 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.
The ruling mirrors a separate appellate panel’s decision earlier this year against Mahmoud Khalil, a former classmate of Mahdawi’s at Columbia University. Both were placed in deportation proceedings last year after participating in anti-Israel activism on university campuses.
As with the ruling against Khalil, the appeals court did not weigh in on the merits of Mahdawi’s claim that he was unconstitutionally targeted for criticizing Israel. He can seek a review from the federal courts over those claims once he has exhausted his options in the immigration courts, the panel wrote.
Mahdawi, 35, is currently appealing an order of removal issued against him in immigration court. An emailed inquiry to his attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union was not immediately returned.
Mahdawi, 35, was born and raised in the West Bank, and has lived in the US since 2014. A permanent resident, Mahdawi was arrested in April 2025 upon arriving for an interview while petitioning for citizenship.
He was released, after two weeks in detention, by US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford in Vermont, who ruled that the West Bank-born green-card holder enjoyed the same First Amendment rights as US citizens.
The decision cited a similar case from this year concerning the administration’s effort to deport Khalil.
He, along with Khalil, was a prominent figure in Columbia’s coalition of anti-Israel protesters, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).
CUAD led protests on campus that included harassment of Jewish students, an unauthorized protest encampment, building takeovers, clashes with police, and property damage.
It has called for the “eradication of Western civilization,” distributed Hamas material on campus, backed calls for violence against “Zionists” and said that “violence is the only path.”
Supporters of Mahdawi have noted he spoke out against antisemitic rhetoric at a Columbia rally in November 2023, and, during a December 2023 appearance on “60 Minutes,” again denounced antisemitic speech among pro-Palestinian protesters.
In court filings, the government has cited a 2015 police report in which a Vermont gun store owner said Mahdawi claimed he “used to build . . . submachine guns to kill Jews” while living in the West Bank, and the shopkeeper’s friend said Mahdawi had, on a separate occasion, said, “I like to kill Jews.”
Several months after the alleged incident, when questioned by the FBI, Mahdawi denied making the comments attributed to him, and the relevant investigation ended shortly thereafter.
On Tuesday, the Second District judges noted that Mahdawi can still challenge his deportation, provided he files his petition against a final order of removal.
