Last month Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD student who was studying developmental and child psychology with a student visa at Tufts University was abducted by armed, masked ICE agents. She was then flown thousands of miles away to a staging facility in Alexandria, Louisiana without access to a lawyer or a phone. ICE did this in violation of a court order made six hours after her arrest prohibiting her from being moved outside of Massachusetts.
A member of the Turkish consulate visited the ICE offices in Burlington, Massachusetts and was told they could not provide information about her whereabouts. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed Ozturk was “engaged in activities in support of Hamas” with no proof or even specifying what those activities were. The fact that she co-wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza, which does not even mention Hamas, was enough “evidence” for the state to abduct her.
Ozturk is just one of more than 300 students and graduates facing deportation for speaking out for Palestinians and their right to exist[i]. This witch-hunt called the “Catch and Revoke” program launched by Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has used AI to screen the social media accounts of tens of thousands of students for alleged sympathies to terrorist groups, except they define all Pro-Palestinian content as support for Hamas.
“We see people marching at our universities and in the streets of our country … calling for Intifada, celebrating what Hamas has done … Those people need to go,” Rubio said. But university demonstrations simply call for an end to the Israeli genocide that has taken more than 50,000 lives, more than half of whom were women and children. Almost no one is celebrating what Hamas did, and intifada just means resistance to oppression. Intifada has, in fact, been used to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which captured Jews fought against their Nazis captors. In a March 27th news conference, Rubio stated, “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist…Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”
The Intercept reported on April 8th that “Immigration attorneys who spoke with The Intercept on Monday estimate the number of student visa revocations may have risen into the thousands in recent days.”[ii] Mahmoud Khalil, Momodou Taal, Ranjani Srinivasan, Yunseo Chung, and Leqaa Kordia are just a few others facing deportation. This program catalyzed by Trump’s unconstitutional executive order 14188 calls for universities to investigate and deport students on visas accused of “antisemitism,” which they openly define as support for any Palestinians.
Trump wrote in a January 30th fact sheet, “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice. We will find you, and we will deport you.” Universities that refused to comply were threatened with federal funding cuts. Similarly, executive order 14161 calls for the deportation of foreign nationals who express a “hostile attitude” towards the US “citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles.”[iii]
MAGA fascists and Neo-Nazi groups like Patriot Front and the Proud Boys invoke their “first amendment right to free speech” to spew their genocidal, racist rhetoric, and they are protected by police. But when pro-Palestinian groups speak out, they are labeled as “terrorist sympathizers.” Free speech does not exist when only right-wing speech is protected and college students are being abducted for writing papers Trump doesn’t like.
Mahmoud Khalil is not a visa holder but a permanent US resident, and he was still targeted. He is also a former refugee and graduate student at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. On March 8th, he was abducted by plainclothes ICE agents in his apartment building in New York City for his involvement in Pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia. Khalil’s pregnant wife filmed the agents who refused to tell her where he would be detained. No criminal charges were brought against Khalil. Instead, the state invoked the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 as they did with Ozturk, which vaguely states that the government may remove immigrants who lack “good moral character” or those thought to “negatively impact US foreign policy.”
Despite the predictable, imaginary charges of antisemitism, Khalil has been vocal in his opposition to it and Islamophobia. Last spring when representing student demonstrators through talks with Columbia University’s administration he told CNN, “As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand by hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other…There is, of course, no place for antisemitism. What we are witnessing is anti-Palestinian sentiment that’s taking different forms, and antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism [are] some of these forms.”
Like Ozturk, Khalil was flown to a Louisiana ICE detention facility so that he couldn’t bring his case to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had ruled in favor of Ravi Ragbir, another NY based activist targeted by Trump in his first term for the same reasons.[iv] Two Department of Homeland Security officials did not want this outcome for Khalil, and they openly admitted told that Khalil was moved to Louisiana “to seek the most favorable venue” for the trump administration. Moving Khalil and others to a detention center thousands of miles away also serves to isolate them from their legal representation and support system.
The day prior to Khalil’s arrest, the Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia, alleging they had failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. Khalil told the Associated Press he had 13 allegations against him and that most were social media postshe didn’t make.The university threatened to bar him from graduating for refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement. They only retracted the threat after Khalil’s lawyer appealed. In response to the federal funding cut, the university agreed to “overhaul its protest policies and hire an internal security force of 36 “special officers” who will be empowered to remove people from campus.”[v]
Far-right Zionist group, Betar US, which literally called for the blood of “Gazan babies”[vi] provided Khalil’s personal information to ICE. Former Betar director, Ross Glick also called on Senators John Fetterman and Ted Cruz to deport him. ICE executive associate director, Tom Homan, and Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai and David Lederer labeled Khalil a “security threat” and requested Marco Rubio deport him. Department of Homeland Security deputy secretary, Troy Edgar said “I think if he would have declared he’s a terrorist, we would have never let him in”
On March 15th, Momodou Taal, a PhD student at Cornell and dual citizen of the UK and Gambia filed a federal lawsuit against the trump administration for the executive orders that targeted other activists. On March 21st, his visa was revoked,[vii] and he made the decision to leave the US on March 31st stating,
“I have lost faith that I could walk the streets without being abducted….It is surreal that we live in a world where you get into trouble for saying killing babies is wrong. Where those advocating for, and celebrating, endless massacres against Palestinians are able to, time and again, present themselves as victims while presenting those fighting against genocide as the oppressors. For months on end, we’ve had to listen to – ad nauseam – concerns regarding the safety of Zionist students when they are the same students who dox, monitor and collaborate with law enforcement to target students of color. If you have been led to think that your safety is only guaranteed by state kidnap, repression, deportation, the slaughter of children, and the suppression of the global majority, then let Gaza’s shards of glass be your mirror.”
White House press spokesperson Harrison Fields responded to Talal’s departure by posting “Good riddance!”
Earlier in March on the 5th, Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent resident and Columbia University student attended a sit-in demonstration in solidarity with fellow students who were expelled for their activism for Gaza. Four days later ICE agents came to her parents’ home and sought a warrant to search her dorm, citing a criminal law against “harboring noncitizens”. Her green card was revoked, and ICE accused her of posing a threat to US foreign policy interests.[viii]
On March 24th, Chung also sued the Trump administration to halt the deportation of herself and other students. The next day, a federal judge ruled in her favor and stated “nothing in the record” showed that Chung was a danger to the community. Chung has since gone into hiding to avoid abduction by ICE.
The Guardian reported, “Her location remains undisclosed, and Chung herself has remained shielded – for her own protection – from the public. But she has nonetheless made a powerful statement, by raising a simple question: if the administration can arbitrarily and unilaterally threaten immigrants over political views they disagree with, if it can disregard the free speech rights of lawful permanent residents – what limits, if any, remain on its power?”
On March 5th, the US Department of State also cancelled the visa of another PhD candidate at Columbia University, Ranjani Srinivasan. ICE agents visited her dorm with no warrant, telling her she was being deported. The university then demanded that she vacate university housing. Before she could be abducted by ICE, she fled to Canada, using a visitor visa. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused her of being a “terrorist sympathizer” without evidence.
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank and a student at Columbia University was also arrested for her involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. She is the only activist mentioned that had overstayed her visa and was not here legally. None of these activists ever came out in support of Hamas.
The trump administration and all Zionists simply want to cast off all Palestinians as terrorists or terrorist supporters so that they can justify their genocide and the prosecution of anyone who speaks out. In our backwards culture, believing that Palestinian life has value is labeled as antisemitic terrorism, and actual terrorism committed by Israel and the USG is called “fighting terrorism”. This is reminiscent of Brazil’s former military dictatorship, which imprisoned artists, writers, painters, singers, filmmakers, and students.
Marco Rubio has now ordered diplomats overseas to screen out visa applicants for criticism of Israel. Just as the state brands protesters against police violence as “outside agitators”, the state seeks to portray Pro-Palestinian activism as some kind of imported reaction when, in fact, a majority of Americans support Palestine and seek a ceasefire.
It’s not just foreign students speaking out for Gaza who are being targeted. The entire population of 1.1 million international students in the U.S seems to be a target. Ksenia Petrova, a Harvard Medical School student who fled Russia in 2023 for fear of being prosecuted for her stance against Russia’s war on Ukraine, was detained at Logan on February 16th and her visa was revoked. She was initially detained for carrying undeclared biological medical samples as part of her research work with Harvard.
Petrova was then flown to a detention center in Jena Louisiana where she is now being held in a room with 80 other women.[ix] Her lawyer says she has credible fear that if deported to Russia she will be persecuted for her anti-war beliefs. Her hearing is scheduled for May 7. Nobel Prize winners have written letters in support of Kseniia who is filing suit against the Department of Homeland Security and CBP, the hearing for which is scheduled for June 9.
On April 4th, another PHD candidate, Xiaotian Liu, at Dartmouth College received an email explaining that the Department of Homeland terminated his student visa with almost no explanation. Liu has no criminal history, nor has he participated in any protests in the US or elsewhere. Liu is currently suing the government for revoking his student visa without notice, a hearing, or any evidence.
Alireza Doroudi, another doctoral student of mechanical engineering from Iran at the University of Alabama is yet another example. He was also abducted by ICE and flown to a Louisiana detention center. Doroudi was deemed a “national security threat” for undisclosed reasons. He has not written anything about the genocide in Gaza and has not participated in any protests. It seems he was targeted simply because he is from Iran.
The Intercept reported that “new lawsuits filed in California allege the government’s deportation attempts appear to be targeting students who are “African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Asian.” San Francisco-based immigration attorney, Johnny Sinodis, stated “It’s a concerted effort to go after people who are from countries and religions that the Trump administration wants to get out of the country.”
By targeting some of the brightest people, Trump seems to be forcing a “brain drain” from the US so that all who remain are brainwashed loyalists. Of course, it’s not just students and graduates being targeted. Trump has targeted working class immigrants from all over the globe. On March 15th, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to treat over 200 Venezuelan immigrants as wartime enemies of the state, sending them to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. He accused them of being involved in a gang supposedly at war with the US, which their family members vehemently deny. The Intercept reported,
“The Alien Enemies Act allows the president to detain or deport the “natives” and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing and based only on their country of birth or citizenship. It has been invoked just three times in American history, each during a major conflict: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. It is best known for its role in Japanese incarceration during World War II.”
What’s next? The Civil Right Act?At this point it wouldn’t be all that surprising if trump began invading Native reservations, claiming the US is at war with Native Peoples once again.
We need to resist this in every way possible: in the courts with lawyers, putting pressure on politicians, and hitting the streets. Even if you’re just sharing information, it’s better than nothing. Fascism takes root when otherwise good people do nothing to resist.
To support Mahmoud Khalil, you can donate here: Justice for Mahmoud Khalil—Urgent Support Needed | Chuffed | Non-profit charity and social enterprise fundraising
To support Petrova, you can donate to her campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-kseniia-a-harvard-scientist-in-need
Citations:
[i] Rubio says State Department has revoked at least 300 student visas
[ii] Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim, “Non-White” Students for Deportation
[iii] The state is also terminating student records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS) database, revoking their legal status.
[iv] https://theintercept.com/2025/03/14/mahmoud-khalil-ravi-ragbir-ice-deport/
[v] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/25/columbia-gaza-protester-yunseo-chung-lawsuit
[vi] Group claiming credit for Mahmoud Khalil arrest demanded “blood” of Gaza babies | The Electronic Intifada
[vii] Cornell University student activist chooses to self-deport after U.S. visa is revoked – CBS News
[viii] Student who sued Trump takes powerful stand against ‘constant dread’ of deportation threats | Trump administration | The Guardian
[ix] Russian scientist from Harvard Medical School detained in U.S., faces deportation and likely arrest upon return due to anti-war stance
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