The US Board of Immigration Appeals has reinstated deportation proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University (a prominent research institution in New York City) who was arrested in 2024 after participating in pro-Palestinian campus protests. The board overturned a February ruling by immigration judge Nina Froes — who was subsequently dismissed by the Trump administration — that had blocked the deportation on grounds of insufficient evidence. Mahdawi, a stateless refugee from the occupied West Bank, says the government is weaponising immigration law to suppress peaceful advocacy for Palestinian rights, with his legal team noting he was targeted under an obscure provision allowing the Secretary of State to deport individuals deemed a foreign policy risk.