The Second Circuit Court of Appeals gave the Trump administration a rare win in an immigration case Tuesday, vacating a district judge's order releasing a Columbia student, Mohsen Mahdawi, from ICE custody, ruling that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear his habeas petition.
Mahdawi is a legal permanent resident who was placed into removal proceedings in Vermont in April 2025 after being identified "at protests at Columbia 'as having engaged in threatening rhetoric and intimidation of pro-Israeli bystanders.'"
He was to appear before an immigration judge at a detention facility in Louisiana on May 1, 2025, but the agents transporting him from Vermont to Louisiana missed the flight, and Mahdawi and his activist attorneys took that opportunity to file a habeas petition in Vermont challenging the legal basis for his removal. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford granted and then extended the motion for a temporary restraining order, and then ordered Mahdawi's release. The administration appealed. The 2nd Circuit denied the administration's motion for stay pending appeal and subsequently denied the administration's petition for rehearing on the stay.
However, the appeal on the merits was still in play. Oral arguments were heard in September 2025, and the opinion released today has some big ramifications.
2nd and 3rd Circuit Scorecard: How the Trump Administration Is Faring Before the Appellate Courts
Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingstone rightly characterized Mahdawi's legal tactic as a "collateral attack on ongoing removal proceedings" and put the kibosh on its use in at least a few states.
This case presents the question whether the United States District Court for the District of Vermont erred by exercising jurisdiction over the habeas petition of Mohsen Mahdawi (“Mahdawi”) notwithstanding 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(9), which provides that “no court shall have jurisdiction, by habeas corpus . . . or by any other provision of law,” to review any questions of law and fact, “including interpretation and application of constitutional and statutory provisions, arising from any action taken or proceeding brought to remove an alien from the United States,” except on a petition for review (“PFR”) of a final order of removal. We conclude that the district court erred.
In immigration matters, our Constitution is clear: “The power to regulate immigration—an attribute of sovereignty essential to the preservation of any nation—has been entrusted by the Constitution to the political branches of the Federal Government.” United States v. Valenzuela-Bernal, 458 U.S. 858, 864 (1982) (citation omitted). “[O]ver no conceivable subject is the legislative power of Congress more complete.”
Our decision today implements the scheme Congress enacted, which affords Petitioner-Appellee Mahdawi the opportunity to raise his claims before a federal circuit court in a petition for review of a final order of removal, but which prohibits this collateral attack on ongoing removal proceedings.
From SCOTUS Wire:
Judge Livingston said the INA's exclusive review scheme channels legal and constitutional challenges arising from removal proceedings to the immigration courts and, ultimately, a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals, leaving district courts without jurisdiction.
She also said Mahdawi could not avoid the INA's jurisdictional limits by styling his case as a challenge to his detention. Because his constitutional claims ultimately attacked the government's basis for seeking his removal, they had to proceed through the INA's review process.
The court now extends this interpretation of the INA to New York, Connecticut, and Vermont following the Third Circuit's near identical ruling in Khalil.
In his declaration to the Vermont court, Mahdawi, who grew up on the West Bank and came to the United States in 2014, claimed that he was dedicated “to understanding how to achieve a lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis, particularly through the study of conflict resolution.” Letters from over 125 people claiming to know Mahdawi "describe[d] him as a person who seeks common ground between students who support Israel’s military response to the atrocities committed by Hamas and those who express outrage against the level of destruction and civilian casualties."
Au contraire. From the ruling:
But in response to Mahdawi’s motion, the Government produced a 2015 police report containing the statement of a Vermont gun store owner who claimed that Mahdawi had visited the store twice, sought to purchase a sniper rifle and a machine gun, and stated that he “used to build . . . submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palistine [sic].” According to the police report, the gun store owner put police in touch with the owner’s friend, who asserted Mahdawi had, on another occasion, expressed interest in purchasing firearms, and stated “I like to kill Jews."
Mahdawi came to the United States on a B1/B2 visitor visa then gained his legal permanent resident status through marriage to an American woman; the two divorced about a year after he came to the United States, but not before she'd filed a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, on his behalf.
This upstanding citizen was also "stopped by Customs and Border Protection officers at the border" in 2019 "and was allegedly found in possession of LSD, methamphetamine, and mushrooms that tested positive for opiates, as well as $4,125 in cash. Mahdawi was charged by the Vermont State Police, but the charges were ultimately dismissed and the record expunged after Mahdawi completed a diversion program."
So, what's next for Mahdawi? The District Court's order on his habeas petition is vacated, and the case remanded to that court, where it will be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. There hasn't been a formal announcement from the administration, but it seems likely that those removal proceedings that were started in April 2025 are back on. If he can be found.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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