Topline
The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday it arrested a Columbia University student protester for overstaying her visa, marking the latest arrest of a Columbia student involved in the pro-Palestinian protests last year and since targeted by the Trump administration.
The arrest was announced Friday. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Key Facts
DHS said in a statement the student is a Palestinian whose F-1 student visa expired in 2022.
This follows the arrest on Sunday of another Palestinian, Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student and legal resident, whose detention has led to a large outcry from the left and some on the right.
DHS also announced in its Friday statement Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian national and Columbia student who also engaged in last year’s protest, deported herself this month after the State Department revoked her visa.
The DHS accused both Srinivasan and Kordia of supporting Hamas but did not provide evidence of the students’ alleged support for the militant group outside of claiming the protests they engaged in were pro-Hamas in nature, though many reports at the time of the protests described them as pro-Palestinian.
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Tangent
Columbia, one of several universities where pro-Palestinian protests were held last year, has become the focal point of the Trump administration’s condemnation of the demonstrations. Early this month, the administration pulled $400 million in federal funding from the university, citing Columbia’s “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” Less than a week after funding was revoked, Columbia suspended students and revoked degrees from some of those who participated in the protests. The Department of Education is investigating 60 colleges and universities over alleged “relentless antisemitic eruptions.”
Key Background
Kordia is the latest Columbia student protester to be arrested by the federal government following Khalil’s arrest last weekend. Khalil’s attorneys said that he, a permanent U.S. resident born in Syria to Palestinian parents, was arrested over a misunderstanding regarding his immigration status. The lawyers said in a filing Khalil was told he was being arrested because his student visa was revoked, adding that when the student said he was a permanent resident, “they arrested him anyway, saying that his green card had also been revoked, but providing no basis for the revocation.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post after Khalil’s arrest the Trump administration would be “revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” The little-known Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 allows the Trump administration to seek Khalil’s deportation without charging him of a crime, though the application of the law will likely be a large point of contention in Khalil’s case, as the administration will have to prove why exactly the student’s presence is a foreign policy threat. Khalil is at an ICE detention center in Louisiana as of Friday as his lawyers attempt to have him moved back to New York.
Further Reading
Mahmoud Khalil Still Detained In Louisiana—At Least For Now—Following Court Hearing: What We Know (Forbes)
Can Marco Rubio Revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s Green Card? What To Know About Little-Known Law Used To Justify Protester’s Arrest. (Forbes)
