The shocking arrest of Columbia graduate and leading pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, sparked a mass movement for his release and in defense of free speech. Yet since then, the Trump administration has only escalated its crackdown on students.
Trump admin makes example out of Columbia students
Federal officials announced on Friday, March 14, that a second Columbia University student, Leqaa Kordia, who also had participated in pro-Palestine protests last spring, had been detained by immigration authorities. Kordia, like Mahmoud, is also Palestinian, originally from the West Bank. She was arrested by ICE officers in Newark, New Jersey, and is currently being held in an immigration detention facility in North Texas.
In a press release, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that Kordia was arrested last spring for “her involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University.”
DHS also announced that a separate Columbia University student, Ranjani Srinivasan, had “self-deported” using a US Customs and Border Protection app. Srinivasan fled the country to Canada after learning that her student visa had been revoked and after federal immigration agents came knocking at her door on Columbia’s campus. Srinivasan’s current targeting by the Trump administration may be linked to her arrest at one of the entrances to Columbia University campus on the same day that protesters occupied Hamilton Hall (renamed “Hind’s Hall” by the pro-Palestine movement on campus.) Srinivasan maintains that she was not involved in the protest and was simply walking back to her apartment from a picnic when she was arrested. Both of her charges stemming from that arrest were ultimately dismissed. DHS characterized Srinivasan, a Fulbright recipient studying urban planning, as “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.”
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement. “When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. I am glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport.”
The Trump administration has attempted to make an example out of Columbia in particular, as one of the first and most prominent sites of struggle for the pro-Palestine student movement last spring. Trump administration officials issued a widely-condemned letter on March 13 to Columbia’s president Karina Armstrong, as well as the co-chairs of the Columbia Board of Trustees, demanding that the university implement a variety of draconian measures at the institution in order to reverse Trump’s decision to withdraw USD 400 million in federal funds. The same day that the letter was issued, Columbia decided to expel, suspend, fire, or revoke the degrees of 22 students for alleged pro-Palestine protest activity.
Peoples Dispatch spoke to one of the expelled students, Grant Miner, who leads the union representing graduate students at Columbia, United Auto Workers Local 2710. According to Miner, the Trump administration’s letter represents a “ransom note” to the university. “We can’t be making concessions” to Trump, Miner argued, which is “going to bully people into expelling students and turning them over to government agencies which are going to disappear them to God knows where.”
Trump’s letter gave Columbia’s administration until March 20 to comply with their demands, which included putting the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership, further disciplining students who engaged in pro-Palestine protests, and enforcing a mask ban.
Attacks on immigrants in New England
More are facing the sudden onslaught of Trump’s immigration crackdown. This includes Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Brown University professor and doctor, who was deported to Lebanon over the weekend due to Trump administration claims that she attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon. The administration did not explain how it knew Dr. Alawieh attended the funeral. Dr. Alawieh is a kidney transplant specialist.
Another caught up in the wrath of immigration authorities is Fabian Schmidt, a legal permanent resident of 17 years, taken by ICE agents last week and tortured in a violent interrogation, and is currently still being held in ICE detention at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island.
“These aggressive attacks on immigrants in New England happened within days of each other, and the supposed cause for deportation and detention has gone unanswered,” wrote the Party for Socialism and Liberation-Rhode Island, in a statement.
“This demonstrates that ‘legal immigrant’ is increasingly becoming an unprotected status. The tired, right-wing harping about legal vs illegal immigrants, about criminal vs non- criminal immigrants has no bearing on reality. The government has always tried to divide us into ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ immigrants. We have to reject that.”
Trump admin: “We’re going to do more”
Officials in the Trump administration have only promised to further their crackdown on waging terror via the immigration system. When questioned on Face the Nation whether there was any evidence that Mahmoud Khalil provided material support for Hamas, Secretary of State Marco Rubio shot back: “Well, not just the student, we’re going to do more,” he said.
“In fact, we—every day now we’re approving visa revocations, and if that visa led to a green card, the green card process as well and here’s why, it’s very simple,” Rubio continued. “When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest, and you’re coming as a student, you’re coming as a tourist, or what have you. And in it, you have to make certain assertations and if you tell us when you apply for a visa, I’m coming to the US to participate in pro-Hamas events, that runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States of America. It’s that simple. So, you lied. You came- if you had told us that you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa. Now you’re here. Now you do it. You lied to us. You’re out. It’s that simple.”
This echoes similar assertions made by Trump officials, including top Trump lawyer Leo Terrell, who leads the infamous Task Force on Anti-Semitism that is cracking down on pro-Palestine student protest at universities across the nation, including Columbia.
“You see all these disorderly demonstrations, supporting Hamas and trying to intimidate Jews? We are going to put these people in jail—not for 24 hours, but for years,” said Terrell in an interview with Israeli media. Terrell has recently come under fire for sharing a post on X from a prominent white supremacist.
Mahmoud Khalil speaks from detention
Detained Palestinian activist and former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil recently released a letter from within ICE detention in Jena, Louisiana. “My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner,” Khalil wrote. “I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.”
“The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent,” Khalil continued. “Visa-holders, green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.”
