FILE-A judge's gavel, scales of justice and law books are shown in a court. (Brian A. Jackson/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Getty Images)
The Trump administration has fired two immigration judges who blocked the federal government’s deportation efforts against pro-Palestinian students.
Citing the National Association of Immigration Judges, Reuters reported that overall, six immigration judges were fired last weekend and three were fired on April 3.
Who are the judges fired for blocking the deportations of the pro-Palestinian students?
Dig deeper:
Reuters reported that Massachusetts judges Roopal Patel and Nina Froes blocked the Trump administration's attempts to deport Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk and Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi.
Ozturk, a Turkish-born student, had her student visa status in the United States repealed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio after publishing an article in a student newspaper denouncing university leadership’s stances on Palestinian causes.
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The New York Times reported that the federal government attempted to deport Mahdawi, a Palestinian student and green card holder, because of his involvement in campus protests.
Froes told The New York Times she was conducting an asylum hearing on April 10 when she received an email stating she had been dismissed. Froes told attorneys for both sides that she needed to stop the case and signed out of the virtual hearing.
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Patel, a Boston immigration court judge, and Froes, a Chelmsford, Massachusetts immigration court judge, were appointed by the Biden administration in 2024, and both judges were coming up at the end of an initial two-year probationary term before their firings, The New York Times reported.
Reuters reported that the Trump administration has taken actions to suppress pro-Palestinian voices by trying to deport foreign students, threatened funding freezes for universities where protests took place, and ordered monitoring of immigrants’ comments posted online.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by Reuters and The New York Times. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.