On Tuesday, US authorities detained and revoked the coed visa of Tufts College scholar, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish nationwide who had voiced her help for Palestinians affected by the Gaza struggle.
Ozturk’s arrest is the newest occasion of President Donald Trump’s administration appearing in opposition to worldwide faculty college students over their help for Palestinians through the Gaza solidarity encampments that erupted throughout college campuses final yr. College students who protested for Palestine are having their authorized visas and residence standing revoked and are being arrested and detained.
Right here is extra concerning the US college college students who’ve been detained to this point:
Why does Trump wish to deport US college students?
The Trump administration alleges that the scholars who participated in pro-Palestine protests unfold anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas sentiment on campus — a declare college students, legal professionals and activists have all rebutted. Jewish activists and teams have been on the forefront of most of the most outstanding protests within the US in opposition to the Gaza struggle.
On January 29, Trump signed an government order titled “Further Measures to Fight Anti-Semitism”, through which he ordered the pinnacle of every government division or company to submit a report inside 60 days on all felony and civil authorities and actions accessible for combating anti-Semitism.
The White Home revealed a reality sheet a day after this order. Within the reality sheet, Trump mentioned: “To all of the resident aliens who joined within the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on discover: come 2025, we’ll discover you, and we’ll deport you. I can even rapidly cancel the coed visas of all Hamas sympathizers on faculty campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like by no means earlier than.”
His administration has since focused a number of worldwide college students and students within the US.
Rumeysa Ozturk
Safety digicam footage from Tuesday night exhibits six people in plainclothes taking Ozturk into custody close to her condominium in Somerville, Massachusetts. A few of these officers had been partially masking their faces. Ozturk had headed out alone to satisfy her associates for Iftar, the night meal to interrupt her Ramadan quick.
The 30-year-old is a Turkish nationwide and a Fulbright Scholar in Tufts’ doctoral programme for Little one Research and Human Improvement. She has been within the US on a sound scholar visa.
On March 26, 2024, Ozturk co-wrote an opinion piece for her college’s scholar information web site, the Tufts Each day, with 4 different college students. On this piece, the authors criticised the institute’s President Sunil Kumar, who despatched an e mail dismissing resolutions handed by the Tufts Neighborhood Union Senate, which known as for the college to divest from firms linked to Israel and “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.
Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, filed a petition in Boston federal courtroom late on Tuesday, arguing that Ozturk had been unlawfully detained. In consequence, US District Decide Indira Talwani ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to not transfer Ozturk out of Massachusetts with out 48 hours discover.
Regardless of this, Ozturk was moved to Louisiana by Wednesday evening, in line with her lawyer.
US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an X submit on Wednesday: “DHS + ICE investigations discovered Ozturk engaged in actions in help of Hamas, a overseas terrorist group that relishes the killing of Individuals.” McLaughlin didn’t specify what these actions had been.
“A visa is a privilege not a proper. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Individuals is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. That is commonsense safety,” McLaughlin wrote.
“We’re unaware of her whereabouts and haven’t been capable of contact her. No fees have been filed in opposition to Rumeysa to this point that we’re conscious of,” Khanbabai mentioned in an announcement.
Tufts College President Sunil Kumar mentioned in a written assertion that the college was not knowledgeable earlier than this arrest. “From what we now have been advised subsequently, the coed’s visa standing has been terminated, and we search to substantiate whether or not that data is true,” Kumar mentioned.
The video of Ozturk’s arrest was captured on 32-year-old software program engineer Michael Mathis’s safety digicam. “It seemed like a kidnapping,” he mentioned, in line with a report by AP. “They strategy her and begin grabbing her with their faces lined. They’re masking their faces. They’re in unmarked automobiles.”
On Wednesday, a whole lot of individuals gathered in Somerville to protest the arrest of Ozturk, demanding her launch.
Standing with hundreds of Somerville residents to denounce the sickening, illegal abduction of Tufts graduate scholar Rumeysa Ozturk by masked federal brokers final evening. We have to carry Rumeysa dwelling and arrange a coordinated protection of our immigrant neighbors and our rights. pic.twitter.com/LSGLLlraIi
— Mike Connolly (@MikeConnollyMA) March 27, 2025
Mahmoud Khalil
On March 8, ICE brokers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a current Columbia College graduate who was the lead negotiator for Columbia College Apartheid Divest (CUAD) through the campus protests final yr. He was taken from his university-owned New York Metropolis condominium whereas his spouse, Noor Abdalla, who’s eight months pregnant, recorded the arrest on her telephone. This marked the primary publicly identified scholar deportation effort of its form beneath the Trump administration.
McLaughlin alleged Khalil “led actions aligned to Hamas, a delegated terrorist group,” however no proof for this was supplied. Abdalla mentioned that the brokers didn’t present a warrant whereas making the arrest. Khalil was transferred to an ICE processing facility in Jena, Louisiana.
On the time of arrest, Khalil was a everlasting resident with a inexperienced card. When the ICE brokers had been advised that Khalil had a inexperienced card, they mentioned that this may be revoked. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted the hyperlink to a information article about Khalil’s arrest, captioning it “We will probably be revoking the visas and/or inexperienced playing cards of Hamas supporters in America to allow them to be deported.”
On March 10, Trump posted on his Reality Social platform: “Following my beforehand signed Government Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical International Professional-Hamas Scholar on the campus of Columbia College.” Trump added that Khalil’s arrest was the primary of many. “We’ll discover, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our nation — by no means to return once more,” Trump wrote, with out providing any proof to again his accusations in opposition to Khalil.
Khalil, 30, was an Algerian citizen born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. He arrived at Columbia in January 2023 to pursue his Grasp’s diploma in public administration. Khalil was amongst a small group of scholars who organised the primary campus protest on October 12, 2024, 5 days after Israel’s struggle on Gaza broke out.
Amid the protests, Khalil was briefly suspended by Columbia, however reinstated after the college discovered no grounds for suspension. On the time, Khalil advised the BBC that whereas he was a lead negotiator, he didn’t take part within the encampments, fearing he would lose his F-1 scholar visa.
It’s unclear when he acquired his inexperienced card, however his spouse, Abdalla, is a US citizen.
“The federal government’s illegal coverage of focusing on noncitizens for arrest and elimination based mostly on protected speech is … viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Modification,” Khalil’s legal professionals, led by Amy Belsher, wrote in a courtroom submitting on March 13.
Badar Khan Suri
Indian nationwide Badar Khan Suri was arrested on the night of March 17 at his dwelling in northern Virginia. Suri is a postdoctoral fellow on the Alwaleed Bin Talal Heart for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown College. He had been in Virginia for 3 years and held a sound US scholar visa on the time of arrest.
Georgetown College mentioned in a written assertion: “We aren’t conscious of [Suri] partaking in any criminality, and we now have not acquired a purpose for his detention.”
McLaughlin attributed Suri’s arrest to his “spreading Hamas propaganda and selling antisemitism”. She wrote on X: “Suri has shut connections to a identified or suspected terrorist, who’s a senior advisor to Hamas.”
Suri’s spouse, Mapheze Saleh, is an American citizen, she confirmed to Al Jazeera. In a submit on X on February 13, the Israeli embassy within the US mentioned that Saleh was the daughter of a senior Hamas adviser. Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to assassinated Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, confirmed to The New York Occasions that he’s Suri’s father-in-law.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration has but to make public any proof that Suri had unfold Hamas propaganda or promoted anti-Semitism.
On March 20, Decide Patricia Tolliver Giles of the Jap District of Virginia Courtroom halted Suri’s deportation. In keeping with the ICE web site, Suri is at the moment being held within the Prairieland Detention Heart in Alvarado, Texas.
Yunseo Chung
Yunseo Chung, 21, is a Korean-American Columbia scholar and everlasting resident of the US and has lived within the US since she was seven. Chung was one of many a number of college students arrested for taking part in a pro-Palestine protest on March 5 this yr at Barnard School, a Columbia-affiliated undergraduate faculty.
On Monday, she sued the Trump administration within the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York to keep away from being deported.
Her authorized crew was knowledgeable early this month that her everlasting residence was being revoked, in line with the courtroom submitting. The lawsuit says that immigration authorities issued an administrative arrest warrant for Chung on March 8.
On Tuesday, US District Decide Naomi Reice Buchwald quickly halted her deportation. “As of at the moment, Yunseo Chung now not has to worry and reside in worry of ICE coming to her doorstep and abducting her within the evening,” Chung’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem mentioned after the ruling.
Momodou Taal
Momodou Taal is a doctoral candidate in Africana Research at Cornell College. He’s a twin citizen of the UK and The Gambia. He participated in pro-Palestine protests final yr, the place he known as on Cornell to divest from firms that promote weapons to Israel. Taal was suspended from Cornell twice final yr for his participation in protest actions and encampment.
Taal advised Al Jazeera that he filed a lawsuit on March 8 alongside two different plaintiffs — a doctoral candidate and Cornell professor who’re each US residents — after Khalil was arrested, in opposition to two Trump government orders, together with the one centered on college campuses.
On the morning of March 19, a day after a federal decide scheduled a listening to for Taal’s lawsuit, Taal posted a written assertion on X that “unidentified legislation enforcement” got here to his dwelling in Ithaca, New York. He added that later within the day, Cornell college students noticed further legislation enforcement automobiles positioned at completely different spots close to his residence, together with on campus.
Citing the instance of Ozturk’s arrest, Taal mentioned that there appears to be an rising sample, “You’re surveilled for a couple of days after which they pounce primarily to abduct you and kidnap you sooner or later.”
Taal mentioned his visa was revoked on March 14.
Alireza Doroudi
Alireza Doroudi, a mechanical engineering doctoral scholar on the College of Alabama, was detained by ICE brokers early on Tuesday, the college’s scholar information web site, The Crimson White, reported. Whereas the ICE web site says that an Iranian particular person named Alireza Doroudi is in ICE custody, it doesn’t specify the place he’s being detained.
Doroudi was from Iran and obtained an F-1 scholar visa from the US embassy in Oman in January 2023. His visa was revoked six months after his arrival within the US, The Crimson White reported, citing a gaggle chat that included Iranian college students. It’s unclear whether or not he was arrested for overstaying a visa.
College spokesperson Alex Home mentioned that, whereas worldwide college students are valued members of the campus neighborhood, the college “has and can proceed to observe all immigration legal guidelines and cooperate with federal authorities.”
Ranjani Srinivasan
Ranjani Srinivasan, 37, had her scholar visa revoked by the US Division of State on the evening of March 5. She realized about this via an e mail from the US consulate in Chennai, the southern Indian state the place she is initially from. She had been a PhD candidate in city planning at Columbia College for 5 years and held a sound visa till 2029.
On March 7, people claiming to be immigration brokers got here knocking on Srinivasan’s college residential housing flat that she had lived in since 2021. The people mentioned that they deliberate to place Srinivasan via proceedings to take away her from the US, earlier than finally leaving.
After this, Srinivasan left her flat for a location she didn’t disclose in communication with Al Jazeera. A day after this, Khalil was arrested. “That’s after I realised I’ve no rights on this system in any respect. It was solely a matter of time earlier than they caught maintain of me,” Srinivasan advised Al Jazeera. “What actually unsettled me was that Columbia already knew ICE was working on campus – but appeared tired of intervening and even seemed to be colluding with them earlier than Mahmoud disappeared.”
On March 9, Columbia unenrolled Srinivasan as a scholar. By March 11, Srinivasan flew out of New York to Canada on a customer visa to stick with her household and associates. Her legal professionals knowledgeable ICE that Srinivasan had departed from the US.
On March 14, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posted a video on her X account exhibiting safety digicam footage of Srinivasan at New York’s LaGuardia airport, elated about “one of many Columbia College terrorist sympathizers” leaving on their very own.
Srinivasan was shocked on the accusation. “If supporting the concept of human rights or ending a genocide is equated with supporting Hamas, then anybody in proximity to me – with out me having executed something – can simply be picked up and made an instance of,” she advised Al Jazeera.
