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Fifth Column

Trump admin fires judges who blocked deportations of pro-Palestinian activists

2026-04-14

[IsraelTimes] Roopal Patel, who stopped efforts to deport Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk, and Nina Froes, who halted removal of Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi, both dismissed in crackdown

The Trump administration has dismissed over 100 immigration judges and hired more than 140 permanent and temporary judges seen as more aligned with the president’s immigration agenda.

The Trump administration on Friday fired two judges who blocked the deportations of international students involved in pro-Paleostinian activism.

One of the judges, Roopal Patel, a Boston immigration court judge, oversaw the Trump administration’s immigration case against Rumeysa Özturk, a Tufts University doctoral student from ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
member, but not the most reliable...
who was detained by ICE agents on the street in Somerville last March.

In February, Patel found there were no grounds to deport her, following a months-long legal battle with the Trump administration and opposition to her arrest from Jewish students and groups.

The other judge fired on Friday, Nina Froes of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, blocked the deportation of Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Paleostinian student activist at Columbia University and green card holder from the West Bank, in February.

Froes told the New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
that she had "fully expected" her firing and said she was unsure if ruling against Mahdawi could have changed the outcome.

"I don’t know what’s in the minds of other people," Froes said. "But I can’t imagine it was helpful."

The firings of the judges come as the Trump administration has dismissed over 100 immigration judges and hired more than 140 permanent and temporary judges seen as more aligned with the president’s immigration agenda, according to The New York Times.

Yet another important thing nobody noticed running in the background.

The detentions of Mahdawi and Özturk last year were part of a broader immigration crackdown by the Trump administration on non-citizens who had participated in campus pro-Paleostinian protests that drew allegations of antisemitism.

Many of those detained as part of the crackdown were later shielded from immediate removal after judges blocked the federal government’s attempts to deport them, including Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate and protest leader.

On Friday, the Board of Immigration Appeals denied Khalil’s bid to dismiss his deportation case, which remains ongoing. (Khalil called the board "biased and politically motivated," following the ruling.)

Last month, the last person still detained in the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Paleostinian campus protests, Leqaa Kordia, was released from ICE custody.

Posted by:trailing wife

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Posted by: Super Hose 2026-04-14 12:24

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Posted by: Grom the Affective 2026-04-14 01:55

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