Two Massachusetts immigration judges who blocked deportation cases against student activists were dismissed on Friday by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a New York Times report.
Roopal Patel, based in Boston, and Nina Froes, who served in Chelmsford, were among several immigration judges terminated as part of a broader reshaping of the immigration court system. Unlike federal judges, immigration judges are employees of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review and can be removed by the executive branch.
Patel handled the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University. Federal agents took Öztürk into custody in March 2025 near her home in Somerville, Mass., after the U.S. State Department revoked her student visa.
The department cited an op-ed she co-wrote for the Tufts Daily, labeling Israel’s actions against Hamas a genocide and calling for Tufts to halt Israel-linked investments. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to a little-used provision allowing him to deport a foreign national if their continued presence in the United States is contrary to American foreign policy interests.
In January, Patel ruled that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to meet its burden to prove Öztürk was removable and terminated the proceedings.
Froes oversaw the case of Mohsen Mahdawi, an anti-Israel activist and former student protest organizer at Columbia University. Mahdawi, a key organizer in Hamas-supporting protests on campus and co-founder of Columbia’s Palestinian Student Union, was arrested by immigration authorities in April 2025 during a citizenship interview in Vermont and spent two weeks in federal custody before being released on bail.
The government again cited foreign policy interests in seeking his removal. In February, Froes dismissed the case, citing the government’s failure to properly support its claims, including issues with key evidence.
More than 100 judges have been removed since early 2025, according to union officials, as the administration moves to expand deportations and install new appointees. Data culled from court records show that the judges who were dismissed granted asylum in about 46% of cases, while those who were kept on did so in about 15% of cases.
