In a Tuesday, July 21 press release, the ACLU of Vermont announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has overturned a ruling that determined federal courts have jurisdiction when immigration enforcement detains noncitizens in retaliation for their protected speech. The Second Circuit held that the district court lacked the authority to release Columbia University graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi on bail in April 2025 after he was detained at his citizenship interview and held for over two weeks in retaliation for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights.
The decision does not go into effect immediately and the government has no lawful basis to redetain or deport Mahdawi as the appeals process proceeds.
“The government is claiming the unprecedented power to detain people for months or even years on end to censor their speech, with no ability to challenge their detention in court. This is as absurd as it is dangerous,” said Michael Tan, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued on behalf of Mahdawi last year. “We will continue to fight for our client and for his right to prompt judicial review.”
Earlier this year, immigration judge Nina Froes dismissed the deportation case against Mahdawi on the grounds that the government failed to authenticate a memo purportedly from Marco Rubio that declared him deportable under the “foreign policy ground” of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Froes was subsequently fired from her position as part of the Trump administration’s larger efforts to use the immigration court system to accelerate deportations. In April, after the government appealed that decision, the DOJ-controlled Board of Immigration Appeals held that Mahdawi was removable and remanded proceedings to a new immigration judge, who issued an order of removal last month. Mahdawi’s appeal of that decision is pending.
For more on this, please see our July 23 edition of the Vermont Standard.
