The Department of State revoked the visa of a Columbia University student, while federal immigration officials arrested a Palestinian protester for overstaying an expired student visa, the Trump administration confirmed Friday.
On March 5, Ranjani Srinivasan, a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia, had their student visa revoked over alleged involvement in “activities supporting Hamas,” a U.S.-designed terrorist organization, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a video on X of what she said was Srinivasan “self-deporting” on Tuesday, using a new app for immigrants to share with the federal government that they are leaving the country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities arrested another protester, Leqaa Kordia, who is from the West Bank, for remaining in the United States after her student visa had expired. Federal officials said Kordia lost her visa more than three years ago for a “lack of attendance.”
Columbia has no record of Kordia being registered as a current or former student. She was arrested during last school year’s pro-Palestinian protests, DHS said — but along the perimeter of campus, not on private property.
The university did not comment on Srinivasan, whose Ph.D. profile remained live on the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation as recently as Friday afternoon.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” 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.”
The heightened immigration activity came as Columbia is reeling over the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate student who served as a negotiator during last year’s campus protests. Khalil, who had a green card, was arrested in university-owned housing and is currently being held in Louisiana after a federal judge blocked his deportation.
Fears of ICE on campus climbed again on Thursday when the university president confirmed that homeland security authorities searched two dorm rooms that evening.
Columbia is facing $400 million in federal grant and contract cancellations after the Trump administration accused the university of not doing enough to protect Jewish students.
To get the funding reinstated, federal agencies directed Columbia to take a series of steps, including to expel or issue multi-year suspensions to student activists who occupied a campus building. The same day, several students were expelled.
