A US immigration judge has blocked the deportation of a Palestinian graduate student who helped organize protests at Columbia University against Israel's war in Gaza, according to US media reports.
Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested by immigration agents last year as he was attending an interview to become a US citizen.
Mahdawi had been involved in a wave of demonstrations that gripped several major US university campuses since Israel began a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian born in the occupied West Bank, Mahdawi has been a legal US permanent resident since 2015 and graduated from the prestigious New York university in May. He has been free from federal custody since April.
In an order made public on Tuesday, Judge Nina Froes said that President Donald Trump's administration did not provide sufficient evidence that Mahdawi could be legally removed from the United States, multiple media outlets reported.
Froes reportedly questioned the authenticity of a copy of a document purportedly signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that said Mahdawi's activism "could undermine the Middle East peace process by reinforcing antisemitic sentiment," according to the New York Times.
Rubio has argued that federal law grants him the authority to summarily revoke visas and deport migrants who pose threats to US foreign policy.
The Trump administration can still appeal the decision, which marked a setback in the Republican president's efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian campus activists.
The administration has also attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil, another student activist who co-founded a Palestinian student group at Columbia, alongside Mahdawi.
"I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government's attempts to trample on due process," Mahdawi said in a statement released by his attorneys and published Tuesday by several media outlets.
"This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice."
