Trump Administration Fires Judges Who Blocked Deportations of Öztürk, Mahdawi

The Trump administration has fired two judges who ruled against them in their cases attempting to deport pro-Palestine student advocates Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, as officials seek to reshape federal immigration courts to speed deportations.

According to The New York Times, the two judges, Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, were dismissed by the administration alongside four other judges on Friday. They are among over 100 judges fired by the Trump administration thus far in Donald Trump’s second term, an unprecedented number, reports say.

Froes and Patel had ruled against deporting Mahdawi and Öztürk, respectively, as the Trump administration sought to punish the two students for expressing solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The State Department’s case against them was on shaky grounds, as it admitted in memos written by Secretary Marco Rubio. The memos showed that the administration had nearly no basis to remove them and other pro-Palestine students it targeted from the country, but was attempting to do so anyway. The memos were unsealed by a federal judge in January after a request from news outlets for them to be made available for the public interest.

The memo on Öztürk admitted that the administration tried to remove her only because of an op-ed that she co-authored in the Tufts University student newspaper, and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security has not “provided any evidence” of her engaging in antisemitic or terrorist activity.

Rubio’s memo on Mahdawi argued that his presence in the U.S. represented a foreign policy risk, and said that he had perpetuated antisemitism based on his participation in pro-Palestine protests on Columbia University’s campus — arguments that his legal team argued were a violation of his First Amendment rights.

Froes said that she “fully expected” to be fired by the Trump administration because of its mass firing of immigration judges. The Trump administration, she said, had made clear to judges that officials wanted a higher rate of deportations.

“It was a pressure I at least tried to actively resist,” Froes told The New York Times. “All people in the United States are entitled to due process, and everyone deserves to have their cases adjudicated fully and fairly.”

Froes and Patel both granted asylum at higher rates than other judges, at 33 percent and 42 percent under Trump overall, respectively, compared to 18 percent across immigration judges on average.

Patel also said that immigration judges should be granted a higher degree of protection from meddling from the executive branch. Immigration courts are separate from the judicial branch, operating under the purview of the Justice Department. “The judges there need more judicial independence,” said Patel.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) rejected an appeal by Mahmoud Khalil, moving him one step closer to deportation. The American Civil Liberties Union excoriated the decision in a statement, pointing out that the Trump administration has “gutted the BIA, cutting it nearly in half and transforming it into a tool for accelerating deportations.”

The Columbia University activist has, again, vowed to continue fighting the administration’s attempts to remove him.

“The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine — and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it,” said Khalil in a statement. “I reject any attempt to intimidate me out of my home based on lies and ideological attacks. This is not justice. This is just another attempt to retaliate against me.”

Marc Van Der Hout, a lead attorney on Khalil’s team, said the decision was blatantly biased.

“In all my decades as an immigration lawyer, I have never seen such a baseless and politically motivated decision,” said Van Der Hout. “Federal courts have already agreed that Mahmoud was targeted for his speech, and there is likely much more evidence of the government’s unlawful retaliation that has yet to come to light.”