A US appeals court overturned a lower court's ruling requiring the Trump Administration to release a Palestinian Arab student who led anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University during the October 7 war, the New York Post reported.
Mohsen Mahdawi, 35, who was a legal US resident since 2015, was arrested by immigration authorities in April 2025, during his naturalization hearing in Vermont. The Trump Administration
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today (Tuesday) that the lower court, which had ordered Mahdawi's release in May 2025, did not have jurisdiction in the case and that the case should have been taken up by an immigration court first.
However, the appeals court stopped short of ordering Mahdawi's rearrest or approving the administration's attempts to deport him.
Mahdawi is one of the highest-profile cases of foreign anti-Israel activists whom the Trump Administration has attempted to deport, after fellow Columbia University alum Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil has also fought a lengthy legal battle against his detention and deportation.