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After Columbia arrests, international college students fall silent

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After Columbia arrests, international college students fall silent
News

News

After Columbia arrests, international college students fall silent

2025-03-15 13:09 Last Updated At:13:20

In the span of a week, a hush has descended on higher education in the United States.

International students and faculty have watched the growing crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University with apprehension. Some say they are familiar with government crackdowns but never expected them on American college campuses.

The elite New York City university has been the focus of the Trump administration's effort to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges last year.

Federal immigration agents have arrested two foreigners — one of them a student — who protested last year at Columbia. They've revoked the visa of another student, who fled the U.S. this week. Department of Homeland Security agents also searched the on-campus residences of two Columbia students on Thursday but did not make any arrests there.

GOP officials have warned it’s just the beginning, saying more student visas are expected to be revoked in the coming days.

Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism issued a statement reporting “an alarming chill” among its foreign students in the past week.

“Many of our international students have felt afraid to come to classes and to events on campus,” said the statement signed by “The Faculty of Columbia Journalism School.”

It added: “They are right to be worried.”

International students and faculty across the U.S. say they feel afraid to voice opinions or stand out on campus for fear of getting kicked out of the country.

“Green-card-holding faculty members involved in any kind of advocacy that might be construed as not welcome by the Trump administration are absolutely terrified of the implications for their immigration status,” said Veena Dubal, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Dubal, who is also general counsel for the American Association of University Professors, says some international faculty are now shying away from discourse, debate, scholarly research and publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals.

“We are literally not hearing their voices. There is a silencing happening that has a huge impact on the vibrancy of higher education,” Dubal said. “People are very, very scared.”

The first publicly known arrest occurred last Saturday, when federal immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist and outspoken graduate student, in the lobby of his apartment building near the Columbia campus.

Khalil has become the face of President Donald Trump’s drive to punish what he calls antisemitic and anti-American protests that swept U.S. campuses last year. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with a green card, is being held in a federal detention complex in Louisiana.

Students and faculty who participated in the protests at Columbia have insisted criticizing Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights isn’t antisemitic. Some Jewish students and faculty say the anti-Israel rhetoric made them feel unsafe.

Civil rights advocates say the detention of Khalil is an assault on free speech. But the ongoing arrests send a wider message that disagreeing with the Trump administration could get you kicked out of the country, said Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.

“If the administration can do this to Mr. Khalil because of the speech about Palestine, it can do it to any non-U.S. citizen who takes a position on hot-button global issues, including the war between Russia and Ukraine, the tariffs imposed against U.S. allies or the rise of far-right political parties in Europe,” he said.

That worry has spread outside New York.

A Bangladeshi student at Louisiana State University, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities, said she has stopped posting about anything political on social media since the first arrest at Columbia. She fears losing her green card.

“I feel like it’s not safe for me to share those things anymore because I have a fear that a quote-unquote ‘authoritarian regime’ is lurking over social media posts,” the student said. When she lived in Bangladesh, she said, people could be arrested for posting dissent on social media. “What I fear is a similar situation in the United States.”

Some schools have been advising international students to be cautious of what they say publicly and to watch what they say online. Several international students on a variety of college campuses said they preferred not to speak with a reporter out of concern for their immigration status.

Administrators at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism have warned students who are not U.S. citizens about their vulnerability to arrest or deportation.

“Nobody can protect you, these are dangerous times,” the school’s dean, Jelani Cobb, said in a post Thursday on Bluesky explaining the comment. “I went on to say that I would do everything in my power to defend our journalists and their right to report but that none of us had the capacity to stop DHS from jeopardizing their safety."

At the University of California, Davis, the Global Affairs Program has updated its website with guidance on the First Amendment and advice on free speech for non-U.S. citizens.

“While international students and scholars have broad rights to freedom of speech and lawful assembly, please be aware that being arrested or detained by law enforcement may trigger current and/or future immigration consequences,” the school says on its website. “Each person should take appropriate care and utilize their best judgment.”

Immigration authorities' activities at Columbia quickly escalated this week.

Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested by immigration officers for overstaying her student visa, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. The former student's visa was terminated in January 2022 for “lack of attendance,” the department said. She was previously arrested for her involvement in protests at Columbia in April 2024, the agency added.

The Trump administration also revoked the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral student at Columbia University, for allegedly “advocating for violence and terrorism.” Srinivasan opted to “self-deport” Tuesday, five days after her visa was revoked, the department said.

The president has warned the arrest and attempted deportation of Khalil will be the “first of many.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday that more student visas were likely to be revoked in the coming days.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

FILE - Members of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group, including Sueda Polat, second from left, and Mahmoud Khalil, center, are surrounded by members of the media outside the Columbia University campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Members of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group, including Sueda Polat, second from left, and Mahmoud Khalil, center, are surrounded by members of the media outside the Columbia University campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after the building was taken over by protesters earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

FILE - Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after the building was taken over by protesters earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

FILE - As light rain falls, New York City police officers take people into custody near the Columbia University campus in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building taken over by pro-Palestinian protesters earlier in the day was cleared, along with a tent encampment. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

FILE - As light rain falls, New York City police officers take people into custody near the Columbia University campus in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building taken over by pro-Palestinian protesters earlier in the day was cleared, along with a tent encampment. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

A student from Columbia University holds up a keffiyeh as they line up to enter Manhattan federal court to attend the deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil, Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A student from Columbia University holds up a keffiyeh as they line up to enter Manhattan federal court to attend the deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil, Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Next Article

The Latest: Trump and Zelenskyy to speak following Trump’s call with Putin

2025-03-19 20:39 Last Updated At:20:41

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would speak with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday and expected to hear more about the American leader’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about a ceasefire and to discuss the next steps.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has blocked enforcement of Trump's executive order banning transgender people from military service, the latest in a string of legal setbacks for his sweeping agenda.

Here's the latest:

“If you can’t keep your subway safe ... we’re going to pull your money,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, adding that it’s not just New York City that’s at risk.

Subway systems in Chicago and Washington could lose the federal dollars they depend on to stay afloat if they also don’t clean up, he said.

Duffy, in the “Fox & Friends” interview, said, “just good government would dictate we have good, clean subways.”

Trump recently talked about crime in the subways of New York City, where he lived for most of his life.

He said he expects to hear more about Trump’s call with Putin about a ceasefire and to discuss the next steps.

But Zelenskyy said a vow by Putin not to attack energy infrastructure was “very much at odds with reality” following an overnight barrage of drone strikes across Ukraine.

“Even last night, after Putin’s conversation with ... Trump, when Putin said that he was allegedly giving orders to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy, there were 150 drones launched overnight, including on energy facilities,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Helsinki with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Russia said it had halted its targeting of Ukraine’s energy facilities and accused Kyiv of attacking equipment near one of its pipelines.

▶ Read more about the war in Ukraine

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an announcement about upgrades to the decades-old system could come in the “next couple days.”

Duffy said the system is safe “but we’re seeing the cracks of age.”

Interviewed Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Duffy said speed is “the key” and that “Congress has to give us all the money upfront.”

He didn’t provide a cost estimate but said he’d discuss the issue soon with Trump, share details with Congress and “hope we get the money quick.”

Air travelers have been spooked by a deadly mid-air collision over the Potomac River in Washington, other plane crashes and near-misses on airport runways.

According to the White House press office, Trump will receive an intelligence briefing at 11 a.m. ET.

Later this afternoon, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing at 1 p.m. ET.

The federal judge who ruled against Trump’s deportation plans and is now facing calls for his impeachment is no stranger to politically fraught cases — including ones involving the president.

In his 14 years on the federal bench, James “Jeb” Boasberg has resolved secret grand jury disputes that arose during the special counsel investigations into Trump, oversaw improvements after the Trump-Russia investigation in how the Justice Department conducts national security surveillance and handled his share of sentencings for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A former homicide prosecutor in the nation’s capital who played basketball at Yale University, where he also earned his law degree, Boasberg has cultivated a reputation among colleagues as a principled jurist with bipartisan respect — he was appointed to the federal bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama but was named a decade earlier to a seat on the D.C. Superior Court by President George W. Bush.

▶ Read more about Judge Boasberg

A federal judge blocked enforcement of Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from military service on Tuesday, the latest in a string of legal setbacks for his sweeping agenda.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump’s order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights. She was the second judge of the day to rule against the administration, and both rulings came within hours of an extraordinary conflict as Trump called for impeaching a third judge who temporarily blocked deportation flights, drawing a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, delayed her order until Friday morning to give the administration time to appeal.

Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted about the ruling on social media, writing, “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…is there no end to this madness?”

▶ Read more about the ruling on transgender troops

President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box as he tours the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Pool via AP)

President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box as he tours the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Pool via AP)

President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he visits the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Pool via AP)

President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he visits the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Pool via AP)

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