Supporters of Palestinian causes with ties to American universities have been detained in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants who have expressed their political views.
President Donald Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others as being “pro-Hamas,” referring to the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against Israel’s actions in the war with Hamas.
Here’s a look at the more than a half-dozen people known to have been taken into custody or deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in recent weeks.
Federal officers detained 30-year-old Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk Tuesday as she walked along a street in suburban Boston. A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said without providing evidence that an investigation found Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
Friends and colleagues of Ozturk said her only known activism was co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel. Ozturk has been taken to an ICE detention center in Louisiana. A U.S. District judge has given the government until Friday to explain why Ozturk was being detained.
Earlier this month, immigration enforcement agents arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident and Palestinian activist who was prominent in protests at Columbia last year. The administration has said it revoked Khalil’s green card because his role in the campus protests amounted to antisemitic support for Hamas. He is fighting deportation.
Khalil served as a negotiator for Columbia students as they bargained with university officials over an end to their campus tent encampment last spring. He was born in Syria but is a legal U.S. resident married to an American citizen.
Yunseo Chung is a Columbia student and lawful U.S. resident who has lived in the country since moving to America from Korea as a child. Earlier this month, Chung attended and was arrested at a sit-in at nearby Barnard College protesting the expulsion of students who had participated in pro-Palestinian activism.
The Department of Homeland Security in seeking to deport her has said Chung “engaged in concerning conduct,” including being arrested on a misdemeanor charge. A judge ordered immigration agents not to detain Chung while her legal challenge is pending.
Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown scholar from India, was arrested outside his Virginia home and detained by the Trump Administration on accusations of spreading Hamas propaganda. Suri’s attorney wrote in a court filing that Suri was targeted because of his social media posts and his wife’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.” Suri holds a visa authorizing him to be in the U.S. as a visiting scholar, and his wife is a U.S. citizen, according to court documents.
Suri was taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, according to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings.
Leqaa Kordia, a resident of Newark, New Jersey, was detained and accused of failing to leave the U.S. after her student visa expired. Federal authorities said Kordia was a Palestinian from the West Bank and that she had been arrested at or near Columbia during pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia said it had no record of her being a student there.
Kordia is being held in an immigration detention center in Alvarado, Texas, according to a government database.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral student at Columbia, fled the U.S. after immigration agents searched for her at her university residence. The Trump administration has said it had revoked Srinivasan’s visa for “advocating for violence and terrorism.” Srinivasan opted to “self-deport.”
Officials didn’t say what evidence they had that Srinivasan had advocated violence. Her lawyers denied the accusations, and she told The New York Times that she wasn’t involved in organizing any Columbia protests.
University of Alabama student Alireza Doroudi was detained by ICE on Tuesday, the university confirmed. The Crimson White, the student newspaper, reported that Doroudi had been detained, but neither the university nor the newspaper explained why Doroudi had been taken into ICE custody.
David Rozas, a lawyer representing Doroudi, said in an email that Doroudi was being detained in Alabama but believed he would be moved to an immigration facility in Jena, Louisiana. Doroudi is a doctoral student from Iran studying mechanical engineering, Rozas said. Doroudi said he wasn’t aware of any suspected criminal activity or violations of his lawful status.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist from Lebanon who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported earlier this month — after a federal judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held. Homeland Security officials said Alawieh was deported as soon as she returned to the U.S. from Lebanon, despite having a U.S. visa, because she “openly admitted” supporting former Hezbollah leaderHassan Nasrallah. Alawieh told officers she followed him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics, court documents said.
She was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine. Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh’s lawyer, has said she would fight to get the 34-year-old doctor back to the U.S.
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