A U.S. appeals court on July 21, 2026 overturned a 2025 lower-court order that had required the Trump administration to release pro-Palestinian protester Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration detention.
Mahdawi, a Columbia University student and lawful permanent resident born in the West Bank, was detained in April 2025 when he showed up for a scheduled naturalization interview in Vermont.
The Trump administration has invoked a rarely used Cold War-era provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act allowing the Secretary of State to deem a non-citizen deportable on foreign-policy grounds.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly said the State Department revoked more than 300 student visas in 2025 tied to campus protest activity.
The First Amendment protects speech by non-citizens on U.S. soil, but the Supreme Court has long held in cases like Kleindienst v. Mandel (1972) that immigration decisions get broad deference to the executive.