A US judge in Vermont has ordered the Trump administration not to deport a Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested upon arriving for an interview for his US citizenship petition, Reuters reports.

District Judge William Sessions ordered US President Donald Trump and other senior officials not to remove Mohsen Mahdawi from the United States or take him out of the state of Vermont.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately respond to a request for information.

Mahdawi, born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, was a Columbia University student who plans to return for a master’s degree in the fall of 2025, according to the request from his lawyers to keep him in Vermont.

“The government has made clear that it intends to retaliate and punish individuals such as Mr Mahdawi who advocated for ceasefire and ending the bloodshed in Gaza,” his lawyers said in a court filing.