A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday overturned a lower court's 2025 ruling that ordered the Trump administration to release pro-Palestinian advocate Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration detention.
Mahdawi was one of several noncitizen students who were placed in deportation proceedings last year after taking part in protests against Israel's military campaign in Gaza, prompting court challenges that placed President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration against the right to free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Mahdawi was released after two weeks in detention by U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford in Vermont, who ruled that he enjoyed the same First Amendment free speech rights as U.S. citizens.
In overturning that ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Crawford did not have jurisdiction over the case because it should have been resolved in immigration court first.
