Trump administration seeks detention of pro-Palestinian students

The Trump administration has asked a federal appeals court to allow immigration authorities to continue detaining students from Tufts University and Columbia University who were arrested after participating in pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus. Government lawyers argued that challenges to deportation decisions should be handled exclusively in immigration courts, not in district courts, to avoid overlapping legal proceedings. The administration also seeks to overturn lower-court orders that enabled the release of Columbia's Mohsen Mahdawi and required a bail hearing for Tufts' Rumeysa Ozturk. Lawyers for the detained students contend their clients are being unlawfully held for exercising constitutionally protected speech critical of Israel's actions in Gaza. The cases highlight the tension between national security or foreign policy interests and First Amendment rights in the context of campus activism. The outcome could set a precedent for how similar cases are handled in the future.