A federal appeals panel on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2026, reversed a lower court decision that had ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Palestinian activist and student protest organizer at Columbia University. The ruling by the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City overturned a Vermont federal judge's earlier order, which had criticized the government's attempts to deport Mahdawi and other activists as akin to McCarthyist repression.

The appeals court stated that the Vermont judge had overstepped by intervening before the case had progressed through the immigration court system. This reversal opens the door for Mahdawi's potential re-arrest. The Trump administration has been pursuing Mahdawi's deportation for over a year.

Sources