Judges Fired After Blocking Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Students

Two immigration judges who ruled against the Trump administration in the deportation cases of pro-Palestinian university students have been fired by the Department of Justice.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that the justice department had terminated six judges, including Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, who oversaw deportation proceedings against Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, two students who were arrested last year as part of Trump’s campaign against the Gaza protest movement.

In an interview with the Guardian, Patel said she did not view her dismissal as “directly retaliatory” for any one case. She said it fit within a broader pattern of the administration dismissing judges near the end of their probationary term, particularly those who have experience representing immigrants in court.

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The Biden administration appointed both Patel and Froes to the bench in May 2024, and both had previously worked in immigration defense. A recent NPR analysis found that the Trump administration appears to be targeting immigration judges who previously represented immigrants.

Earlier this year Patel rejected the administration’s efforts to deport Öztürk, then a Tufts University PhD student who had co-written an op-ed for the student newspaper critical of the university’s response to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians. Her attorneys said that Patel terminated the proceedings against her after finding the government did not have grounds to deport her.

In February, Froes blocked the Trump administration from removing Mahdawi, a Columbia student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested during a US citizenship interview last year.

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