US arrests second pro-Palestine Columbia University protester
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Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was apprehended in New Jersey, while Ranjani Srinivasani, an Indian citizen, chose to "self-deport" and left the US earlier this week.
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A student from Columbia University holds up a Kouffiyeh as they line up to enter Manhattan federal court to attend the deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil on March 12, 2025. (AP)
US immigration officials have arrested a second activist who took part in pro-Palestine rallies last spring at Columbia University in New York City.
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was apprehended in New Jersey, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Friday.
According to the statement, another student, Ranjani Srinivasani, who holds Indian citizenship, elected to "self-deport" by departing the US earlier this week.
“The atmosphere seemed so volatile and dangerous,” Ms. Srinivasan, 37, said on Friday in an interview for The New York Times, her first public remarks since leaving the US and heading to Canada. “So I just made a quick decision.”
The first knock at the door came eight days ago, on a Friday morning.
Three federal immigration agents showed up at a Columbia University apartment searching for Srinivasan, who had recently learned her student visa had been revoked. The international student from India did not open the door.
She was not home when the agents showed up again the next night, just hours before a former Columbia student living in campus housing, Mahmoud Khalil, was detained, roiling the university.
Srinivasan packed a few belongings, left her cat behind with a friend and jumped on a flight to Canada at LaGuardia Airport.
When the agents returned a third time, this past Thursday night, and entered her apartment with a judicial warrant, she was gone.
This follows the arrest of Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was apprehended in New York Saturday and taken to a Louisiana prison.
A government charging document addressed to Khalil, a lawful permanent resident currently detained in Louisiana, stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “has reasonable ground to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Green cards are rarely revoked without a criminal conviction, yet the foreign policy provision is the sole justification listed for Khalil’s deportation.
According to the DHS statement, Kordia overstayed her student visa, which was canceled in 2022 "for lack of attendance." It did not specify if she had attended Columbia or another university.
She was previously detained in April 2024 for participating in protests at Columbia University, according to DHS.
Srinivasan, a PhD student in urban planning at Columbia University, had her visa terminated on March 5.
"It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement, adding, "When you advocate for violence and terrorism, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country."
Ramzi Kassem, Srinivasan's lawyer, told The Wall Street Journal that the government's statement was "full of the falsehoods we've come to expect of DHS."
Kassem told the publication that the government "violated basic rights" by canceling a visa "simply for engaging in protected political speech."
In addition, on Thursday night, DHS officers conducted two search warrants in the Columbia campus rooms.
According to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of the US Justice Department, the officers were looking for proof that the institution was "harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus," adding that the department was also assessing "whether Columbia's handling of earlier incidents violated civil rights laws and included terrorism crimes."
Columbia Interim President Katrina Armstrong wrote in a letter to the campus that she was "heartbroken" to notify them of the government raid.
"No one was arrested or detained. No items were removed, and no further action was taken," she explained.
The Trump administration has also withheld $400 million in federal funds from Columbia University, claiming it failed to combat "antisemitism" on campus.
