For the second time in a little more than a week,\u00a0attorneys have announced that an\u00a0immigration court has terminated deportation proceedings against a pro-Palestinian student after Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed they posed a threat to foreign policy.<\/p>\n
According to a letter filed in court, attorneys for Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was detained at his naturalization interview in April<\/a>, a judge has found that the Department of Homeland Security “did not meet its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence” that he is removable.\u00a0<\/p>\n It comes after an immigration court terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University Ph.D. student\u00a0R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk. Her attorneys announced the order in a letter to the federal judge overseeing the case challenging her detention on Feb. 9.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mohsen Mahdawi speaks outside the courthouse after a judge released the Palestinian student activist on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 in Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo\/Amanda Swinhart)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Amanda Swinhart\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For Mahdawi’s case, immigration judge Nina Froes appears to have based her decision on the finding that DHS failed to authenticate a memo allegedly signed by Rubio claiming Mahdawi was a threat to U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n Mahdawi’s attorneys have argued that, like other pro-Palestinian demonstrators, organizers and students, he was being targeted for his constitutionally protected speech.<\/p>\n \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, like Mahdawi, was also labeled a foreign policy risk by Rubio in a memo.<\/p>\n Both cases can be appealed by the Trump administration, so their habeas petitions will likely continue to play out in federal court.<\/p>\n “I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s 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 “In a climate where dissent is increasingly met with intimidation and detention, today’s ruling renews hope that due process still applies and that no agency stands above the Constitution,” he added.<\/p>\n Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk reads from a prepared statement following a court hearing outside the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo\/Leah Willingham)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Leah Willingham\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In response to a request for comment about both cases,\u00a0the Department of Homeland Security\u00a0sent a previous statement about Mahdawi and\u00a0said:\u00a0“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”<\/p>\n Mahdawi was detained in Vermont last spring during his citizenship interview. Arguing that he should continue to be detained, lawyers for the Trump administration pointed to a 2015 FBI investigation, in which a gun shop owner alleged that Mahdawi had claimed to have built machine guns in the West Bank to kill Jews.<\/p>\n![\"PHOTO:](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/318e14e5-f9d8-4280-8825-c025fd7fed63\/columbia_1771374655528_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Ache\\"")
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