Administration fires 2 immigration judges who ruled against deporting Palestinian rights advocates
Source: ABC News
April 13, 2026, 2:52 PM
The Trump administration has fired two immigration judges who earlier this year dismissed the deportation cases of students advocating for Palestinian rights, the union representing immigration judges confirmed Monday.
Roopal Patel, who was appointed as an immigration judge in 2024, ruled in February that there were no grounds to deport Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University. Ozturk was held in detention in Louisiana for 45 days.
Nina Froes, who was also appointed as a judge in 2024, dismissed deportation proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student who was arrested by immigration authorities immediately following his citizenship interview last April.
Froes and Patel are among 113 immigration judges who have been fired during the current Trump administration. According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, six judges were terminated this past weekend alone. It's unclear if the two judges were terminated directly because of their rulings in the deportation cases of the students.
Read more: https://abcnews.com/US/administration-fires-2-immigration-judges-ruled-deporting-palestinian/story?id=131997768