{"id":66618,"date":"2026-02-18T07:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/immigration-judge-blocks-deportation-of-columbia-anti-israel-agitator\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:59:23","slug":"immigration-judge-blocks-deportation-of-columbia-anti-israel-agitator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/immigration-judge-blocks-deportation-of-columbia-anti-israel-agitator\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration judge blocks deportation of Columbia anti-Israel agitator"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump<\/a>‘s administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Palestinian protest leader who led anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University.<\/p>\n

Judge Nina Froes terminated the case after saying federal authorities made a procedural error and failed to certify a document they attempted to submit as evidence.<\/p>\n

“I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government\u2019s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi said in a statement.. “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice.”<\/p>\n

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman<\/a> Tricia McLaughlin condemned the ruling on Tuesday, saying the Trump administration remains committed to removing Mahdawi’s visa.<\/p>\n

TRUMP ADMIN CRACKS DOWN ANTISEMITISM AS DOJ OFFICIAL EXPOSES ‘VIOLENT RHETORIC’ OF RADICAL PROTESTERS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that,” she said.<\/p>\n

Froes’ ruling relates to a document submitted as evidence by federal attorneys. The document referenced Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> saying noncitizens can be expelled from the country if their presence may undermine U.S. foreign policy interests.<\/p>\n

Froes wrote in her ruling that government attorneys submitted a photocopy of the document to the court, but they failed to certify it as required under federal law.<\/p>\n

FEDERAL JUDGE SIDES WITH ANTI-ISRAEL RINGLEADER MAHMOUD KHALIL, HALTS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S DEPORTATION BID<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mahdawi, 34, was detained in April 2025 during a citizenship appointment in Vermont<\/a> and spent more than two weeks in custody. He was later released on bail after filing a habeas corpus petition.<\/p>\n

A federal judge ordered that he not be deported or removed from the state and was released under an order issued by U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford in Burlington.<\/p>\n

According to the 2025 court filing, Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia<\/u><\/a> after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack. He founded the group with Mahmoud Khalil.<\/p>\n

MORE THAN A DOZEN ANTI-ICE AGITATORS HAULED AWAY BY NYPD NEAR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mahdawi’s deportation case also stems in part from allegations dating back to 2015, when he was interviewed by the FBI after reportedly making antisemitic remarks<\/u><\/a> at a Vermont gun store and a firearms museum.<\/p>\n

According to court documents previously cited by Fox News Digital<\/u><\/a>, the store owner said Mahdawi expressed interest in purchasing firearms, including a sniper rifle and an automatic weapon.<\/p>\n

The owner claimed he had experience building modified 9mm submachine guns “to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.”<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump‘s administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Palestinian protest leader who led anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University. Judge Nina Froes terminated the case after saying federal authorities made a procedural error and failed to certify a document they attempted to submit as evidence. “I am grateful to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}