Immigration officials have arrested a second person who participated in Pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, and have revoked the visa of one other scholar, they introduced Friday (March 14, 2025).
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested by immigration officers for overstaying her scholar visa, the Department of Homeland Security stated.
“Ms. Kordia’s visa was terminated in January 2022 for ‘lack of attendance,’ the department said. Ms. Kordia was previously arrested for her involvement in protests at Columbia in April 2024,” it added.
The Trump administration additionally revoked the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral scholar, on March 5 “for advocating for violence and terrorism.” On Tuesday (March 11, 2025), Mr. Srinivasan opted to “self-deport,” the division stated.
The announcement comes after the latest arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead scholar protests at the varsity and is going through deportation.
Mr. Khalil was rushed from New York to Louisiana final weekend in a fashion that left the outspoken Columbia University graduate scholar feeling like he was being kidnapped, his legal professionals wrote in an up to date lawsuit in search of his speedy launch.
The legal professionals described in element what occurred to the Palestinian activist as he was flown to Louisiana by brokers, he stated they by no means recognized themselves. Once there, he was left to sleep in a bunker with no pillow or blanket as high U.S. officials cheered the trouble to deport a person his legal professionals say typically turned the “public face” of scholar protests on Columbia’s campus towards Israel’s navy actions in Gaza.
The submitting late Thursday (March 13, 2025) in Manhattan federal court docket was the results of a federal choose’s Wednesday order that they lastly be allowed to talk with Mr. Khalil.
The legal professionals stated his remedy by federal authorities from Saturday (March 15, 2025), when he was first arrested, to Monday (March 10, 2025) reminded Mr. Khalil of when he left Syria shortly after the pressured disappearance of his mates there throughout a interval of arbitrary detention in 2013.
“Throughout this process, Mr. Khalil felt as though he was being kidnapped,” the legal professionals wrote of his remedy.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump heralded Mr. Khalil’s arrest as the primary “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport college students he stated interact in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
In court docket papers, legal professionals for the Justice Department stated Mr. Khalil was detained below a regulation permitting Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take away somebody from the nation if he has affordable grounds to imagine their presence or actions would have doubtlessly critical opposed international coverage penalties.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio have been added as defendants in the civil lawsuit in search of to free Mr. Khalil.
The Government attorneys requested a choose to toss out the lawsuit or switch it to New Jersey or Louisiana, saying jurisdiction belongs in the places the place Mr. Khalil has been held since his detention.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Khalil repeatedly requested to talk to a lawyer after the U.S. everlasting resident with no legal historical past was snatched by federal brokers as he and his spouse have been returning to Columbia’s residential housing, the place they lived, after dinner at a pal’s dwelling.
Confronted by brokers for the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Khalil briefly telephoned his lawyer earlier than he was taken to FBI headquarters in decrease Manhattan, the lawsuit stated.
It was there that Mr. Khalil noticed an agent strategy one other agent and say, “the White House is requesting an update,” the legal professionals wrote.
At some level early Sunday (March 9, 2025), Mr. Khalil was taken, handcuffed and shackled, to the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a privately-run facility the place he spent the evening in a chilly ready room for processing, his request for a blanket denied, the lawsuit stated.
“When he reached the front of the line for processing, he was told his processing would not occur after all because he was being transported by immigration authorities,” it stated.
Put in a van, Mr. Khalil seen that one of many brokers obtained a textual content message instructing that Mr. Khalil was to not use his cellphone, the lawsuit stated.
“At 2:45 p.m. Sunday (March 9, 2025), he was put on an American Airlines flight from Kennedy International Airport to Dallas, where he was put on a second flight to Alexandria, Louisiana. He arrived at 1 a.m. Monday (March 10, 2025) and a police car took him to the Louisiana Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana,” it stated.
At the power, he now worries about his pregnant spouse and is “also very concerned about missing the birth of his first child,” the lawsuit stated.
In April, Mr. Khalil was to start a job and obtain well being advantages that the couple was relying on to cowl prices associated to the start and care of the kid, it added.
“It is very important to Mr. Khalil to be able to continue his protected political speech, advocating and protesting for the rights of Palestinians – both domestically and abroad,” the lawsuit stated, noting that Mr. Khalil was planning to talk on a panel at the upcoming premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark, of a documentary in which he’s featured.
At a listening to Wednesday (March 12, 2025), Mr. Khalil’s attorneys stated that they had not been allowed any attorney-client-protected communications with Mr. Khalil since his arrest and had been instructed they might communicate to him in 10 days. Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that at least one dialog be permitted on Wednesday (March 12, 2025) and Thursday (March 12, 2025).
Published – March 14, 2025 11:45 pm IST
