Appeals court to consider whether detained students from Tufts, Columbia should be moved

Washington — A federal appellate panel on Tuesday is set to consider high-profile cases involving two international students who were detained by federal immigration officials and now face removal from the U.S. after they made statements that were critical of Israel.

The panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit will hear arguments in emergency appeals from the Trump administration after two federal judges issued separate decisions in favor of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral candidate at Tufts University, and Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, last month. 

Administration officials are asking the 2nd Circuit to pause the lower court orders issued in Ozturk and Mahdawi's cases while their challenges to their respective detentions move forward. In Ozturk's case, U.S. District Judge William Sessions issued an order for Ozturk, who is being detained at a facility in Louisiana, to be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Vermont and set a bail hearing for her to attend in person on May 9.