Administration fires 2 immigration judges who ruled against deporting Palestinian rights advocates
The Trump administration fired two immigration judges this past weekend who had earlier dismissed deportation cases against two pro-Palestinian student activists. Judge Roopal Patel had ruled there were no grounds to deport Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was held in detention for 45 days, while Judge Nina Froes dismissed proceedings against Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested immediately after his citizenship interview. The two are among 113 immigration judges fired during the Trump administration, with six terminated in one weekend alone. While it remains unclear if the dismissals were directly tied to their rulings, Rep. Dan Goldman called the firings a violation of “every basic due process,” accusing the administration of “purging immigration judges who aren’t rubber stamps” for its mass deportation agenda and threatening others who refused to comply.