Latest news with #RanjaniSrinivasan
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ice used ‘false pretenses' for warrant to hunt for Columbia students, lawyers say
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) effectively misled a judge in order to gain access to the homes of students it sought to arrest for their pro-Palestinian activism, attorneys say. A recently unsealed search warrant application shows that Ice told a judge it needed a warrant because the agency was investigating Columbia University for 'harboring aliens'. In reality, attorneys say, Ice used the warrant application as a 'pretext' to try to arrest two students, including one green card holder, in order to deport them. What the unsealed document shows is that the agency 'was manufacturing an allegation of 'harboring', just so agents can get in the door,' Nathan Freed Wessler, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said. 'What Ice was actually trying to do is get into these rooms to arrest them.' The 'harboring aliens' statute is applied to those who 'conceal, harbor, or shield from detection' any immigrant who is not authorized to be in the US. The search warrant, which was first reported by the Intercept, relates to two Columbia University students, Yunseo Chung and Ranjani Srinivasan, whom Ice sought to deport over their purported pro-Palestinian activism. According to the document and other court records, agents had arrived at Columbia's New York campus on 7 March to try to arrest Srinivasan but were unable to enter her dorm room because they did not have a judicial warrant. Two days later, on 9 March, agents arrived at Chung's parents' house to search for her, also without a warrant. On 13 March, an agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an office within Ice, filed the application for a search and seizure warrant with a federal judge in New York, saying that it was investigating Columbia University for 'harboring aliens'. The agent claimed he believed there was 'evidence, fruits and instrumentalities' that could prove the government's case against the university. The federal judge granted the warrant and agents subsequently entered and searched two residences on Columbia's campus. After Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the US since the age of seven, found out about HSI's search, she sued the government to block its effort to arrest and deport her. In the original complaint, attorneys for Chung claimed the search warrant was 'sought and obtained on false pretenses'. Srinivasan, a doctoral student on a student visa, had left the US by then rather than risk arrest. Despite entering the dorm to, as HSI says, investigate whether Columbia was 'harboring aliens', attorneys claim it was used as a pretext to gain access to residences they would not otherwise have been able to enter, in order to carry out the arrests. 'The manner of execution suggests that the agents were searching for the two named students, including Ms Chung, and needed a lawful basis to enter the residences in the hope of arresting the students on encounter,' Chung's attorneys wrote in the March complaint. Chung has since been granted temporary protection from deportation as her case proceeds. The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said in mid-March that the university was under investigation 'for harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus'. It is unclear whether Ice is still investigating Columbia University for 'harboring aliens'. The New York Times recently reported that a separate justice department investigation is seeking a list of names of Columbia students involved in a protest group in order to share it with immigration agents. A Columbia University official with knowledge of the search warrant application said that university had not seen the document before this week, and that the university has complied with subpoenas and judicial warrants when 'required'. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to requests for comment by time of publication. HSI referred all questions to the DHS. Since the Trump administration stepped into office, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has engaged in a little-used authority to rescind green cards and visas held by a number of students around the country who have been involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy. The state department has accused some of them of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organization, without providing evidence. 'We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,' Rubio said in March on X, formerly known as Twitter. Rubio personally revoked Chung's visa, a memo submitted in her case shows. As Wessler explains, even if the secretary of state revokes someone's legal status, the government is required to engage in the lengthy legal process before attempting to deport them. But, he adds, the government's attempt to use the 'harboring aliens' accusation to enter the building is a worrying escalation by the Trump administration. 'There is a lot of concern by people and organizations for [the Trump administration's] extremely aggressive interpretations of the harboring statute,' Wessler said. 'As this episode illustrates, those interpretations don't hold up to scrutiny.' The ACLU submitted letters to universities and magistrate judges last month, warning them of Ice's attempts to use similar accusations to justify judicial warrants. 'A college or university's normal conduct in providing housing and services to students does not constitute a violation of Section 1324' – the 'harboring aliens' law, one of the ACLU letters states.
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What Is a Student Visa? The Rights and Risks Amid Trump's Crackdown.
Ranjani Srinivasan, a Fulbright recipient from India who was pursuing a doctoral degree in urban planning at Columbia University, fled to Canada after authorities revoked her student visa and showed up at her campus apartment on March 7. Two weeks later, in Somerville, Mass., Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and graduate student at Tufts University, was taken into federal custody after she drew the attention of a right-wing group that says it combats antisemitism on college campuses. Those cases and others — unfolding amid President Trump's campaign to deport immigrants — have cast a spotlight on student visas, which allow foreign nationals to enter the United States for full-time study. International students at universities across the country are afraid of being targeted. 'They're terrified. They're unsettled,' said Fanta Aw, the executive director and chief executive of NAFSA, a nonprofit association of international educators. 'Some of them are asking themselves, 'Should I remain here, knowing there is so much uncertainty, or is it best that I just go home?'' Here is what we know about the legal protections afforded to student visa holders, their vulnerabilities and the power the federal government possesses to revoke their visas. What is a student visa? International students typically have what is known as an F-1 visa, and they must meet and maintain certain criteria that are set by the federal government and the host school. Typically, students must be enrolled in an academic program at a college or university that has been approved by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Those who are studying under an F-1 visa generally cannot work off campus during their first academic year and must show that they have enough money to afford living in the United States during the entire time that they are studying there. F-1 visas typically are issued for the duration of a student's stay in the United States and can be extended if coursework or research take longer than planned. Student visas are mutually beneficial for international students and their host schools, providing the institutions with cultural enrichment and billions in tuition dollars. According to a study by NAFSA, the 1.1 million foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion to the nation's economy during the 2023-24 academic year. In return, international students receive a typical American college experience — one that has sometimes involved the longstanding tradition of students speaking out against opinions, policies or politics they oppose. New York University has the most foreign students of any U.S. school, followed by Northeastern University in Boston, then by Columbia and Arizona State University, according to the Open Doors report compiled by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization that focuses on international student exchange programs and conducts an annual census of such students in the United States. At N.Y.U., 22 percent of students come from outside the country. Students from India make up the largest percentage of international students, at 29 percent, according to the report, followed closely by students from China, at 25 percent, and then by students from South Korea, at 4 percent. Canadian students were next, at 3 percent. What legal protections do student visas grant? Visa-holding students have the same basic constitutional protections as U.S. citizens, including the First Amendment right to free speech, said Joshua Bardavid, an immigration lawyer in New York. 'The Constitution applies to all persons,' Mr. Bardavid said. 'Even people who are undocumented have basic and constitutional due process rights.' But those rights can be superseded by the federal government in some circumstances, including when officials screen foreigners at the border. The speech of people on student visas is still protected, but it doesn't always protect their immigration status. International students are especially vulnerable to deportation because of the temporary nature of their legal status. Joseph Lento, a lawyer who regularly advises foreign students, said that a student's visa status could be abruptly suspended or revoked if immigration officials determined they were not in compliance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats overseas to scour the social media content of student visa applicants to identify those who have criticized the United States and Israel and potentially bar them from entering the country. Last month, he told reporters that the State Department, under his direction, had revoked the visas of possibly more than 300 people — students, visitors and others — and was continuing to revoke visas daily. On Friday, Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, a membership association that includes many colleges and universities, wrote a letter to Secretary Rubio urging him to better explain the government's recent actions. The government has authority to revoke the legal status of people who it believes are affiliated with terrorism. That power was expanded in the 1990s at the height of the nation's tough-on-crime policies and then broadened once again after the Sept. 11 attacks. Even foreign-born students who are lawful permanent residents or who are naturalized citizens risk losing their right to live in the United States if, for example, immigration officials determine that they are affiliated with a terrorist organization. Federal immigration officials have recently made such accusations against students without providing proof. Why are student visas revoked? Typically, international students lose their legal status when they break the rules of their visa programs, such as by working in the United States when they are not allowed to, or by having their grades slip to the point that they are no longer in good academic standing. At N.Y.U., students who maintain a grade-point average above 2.0 are regarded as being in good standing. Foreign students can also lose their visas if they are considered a public danger. 'I've seen a student visa revoked because a student had a massive number of speeding tickets,' said Sarah Spreitzer, who oversees matters related to international students at the American Council on Education. Historically, it has been rare for students to be deported because of acts of political expression. At college campuses across the country, administrators and faculty members have expressed concern about students' ability to share their opinions without risking their legal status. 'We have students who are here to study journalism in the United States precisely because of the reputation of freedom of the press here, and now they're extremely worried about whether they can even do their work without having their visas revoked and having all kinds of difficulties about their immigration status,' said Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia Journalism School. Can students appeal a visa revocation? Students seldom appeal the revocation of their visas in court because the odds of success are slim, Mr. Bardavid said. 'I can't even think of a case offhand where a student would successfully be able to have challenged their denial of a student visa in federal court,' he said. 'That's just not going to happen.' Mr. Lento stressed that because visas were granted at the discretion of U.S. officials, lawful activity that drew negative attention could result in scrutiny from immigration officials or academic leaders. Many students, he said, do not realize that an arrest or even disciplinary action from their school can jeopardize their immigration status, regardless of whether they are found guilty.
CNN
31-03-2025
- Politics
- CNN
‘I was stunned and scared:' Columbia University student ran from Homeland Security
Ranjani Srinivasan was busy talking to an adviser at Columbia University when the federal agents first came to her door. The day before she'd got an unexpected email that her student visa had been canceled, and she was trying to get information. 'It was my roommate who heard the knock and immediately recognized (it as) law enforcement,' Srinivasan told CNN. 'She asked them 'Do you have a warrant?' And they had to say 'No.'' 'I was stunned and scared,' she said. 'I remember telling the adviser 'ICE is at my door and you're telling me I'm fine? Do something.'' They returned another day, also without a warrant, Srinivasan said. Matters escalated when they came a third time, with a judge's permission to enter the Columbia apartment. By then she had already left the country. The biggest question for Srinivasan is why they came at all. Srinivasan had renewed her student visa just a few months earlier, being granted permission for another five years in the United States — more than enough time to complete her PhD in urban planning. She was no stranger to immigration rules, having won a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard University for her master's degree and then returning to her native India for the requisite two years after. Her dream acceptance at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation coincided with the beginning of the Covid pandemic, so she started her studies in Chennai, India, before making it to New York City. By last month, the end of her doctorate was almost in sight, she was grading papers for the students she was teaching and fretting over a deadline for a journal. Far from her mind was a night almost a year before when she got caught up in a crowd. That evening in April 2024 she'd been trying to get back to her university apartment from a staff picnic when she was swept up in a police operation against a crowd protesting Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, she said. I did not mean to deceive anyone … If I made a mistake, I would have been happy to clarify it to the state Ranjani Srinivasan Srinivasan had only just returned to the US, having been away from Columbia since before the war began and generated passionate protests. 'We didn't really know what was going to happen that day,' she said. 'The whole perimeter of the neighborhood had been barricaded.' Unable to prove she lived there, she wasn't allowed to go to her street, so she ended up circling the neighborhood, looking for a way through, she told CNN. 'They kept shifting the barricades, and then I think around 200 cops descended, and they kind of charged at us. It was absolute confusion. People were screaming, falling, people were running out of the way,' she said. Too small to force her way through the melee, she ended up in a large group of people detained by the police. She said she was held with the crowd for several hours but never fingerprinted or booked for an arrest. She was given two pink-colored summonses by the New York Police Department — one for obstructing pedestrian traffic and the other for failure to disperse — before being released. A lawyer working pro bono for a number of the students got the summonses dismissed even before she had to appear in court. That means there should be no record against her, and as far as Srinivasan was concerned, she could forget the whole thing. She did not report the dismissed summonses on her visa renewal. When asked why Srinivasan's visa was revoked, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement 'these citations were not disclosed.' That was never mentioned to Srinivasan when she was told her visa had been taken away. 'I did not mean to deceive anyone,' she said. 'If I made a mistake, I would have been happy to clarify it to the state.' But she was never given the chance. According to local so-called sanctuary laws, federal authorities should not have even known Srinivasan had ever been detained, according to her lawyer, Nathan Yaffe. 'New York City is supposed to have protections in place to prevent people who don't commit crimes, who haven't been in any kind of trouble, from getting caught in this sort of punitive dragnet that the administration is implementing here,' he said. 'But clearly the federal government has access to the summons database or to other data that allows them to see even when people aren't fingerprinted, even when people don't have any criminal case, even when the only allegation against them is entirely dismissed.' It was very clear to her, rightly so, that this government would stop at nothing to pursue her, even though their pursuit of her was based on nothing Nathan Yaffe, Srinivasan's lawyer No one from DHS, the NYPD or Columbia University responded to CNN requests about how federal authorities became aware of this case. When asked about Srinivasan by CNN at a news conference, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said: 'I'll say it over and over again: New York City Police Department, they do not collaborate for civil enforcement.' He said he would look into it but his office has not got back to CNN. For Srinivasan, the sudden escalation was alarming. She says she had attended protests in her time in the US, but as much to experience American culture as to exercise free speech. But she was seeing others being detained under orders from the Trump administration and was afraid. 'You keep going back, thinking 'Have I done something?' And there are no answers there,' she said. She knew Columbia University graduate student and US permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and put in detention in Louisiana, and did not want to take that risk. 'It was very clear to her, rightly so, that this government would stop at nothing to pursue her, even though their pursuit of her was based on nothing,' Yaffe said. Srinivasan went to LaGuardia Airport and took a flight to Canada. Government officers, now in possession of a warrant, went back to her apartment. Four agents, three with their faces covered, spent several minutes inside. They asked Srinivasan's roommate to stay in her room. 'If not, you can leave,' one agent said, as heard on a video recording taken by the roommate that CNN has viewed. Another said he would explain the warrant 'if you would like to put down your phone.' I'm glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self deport Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security on X 'We have a warrant to search this premises for electronics, documents related to Ranjani Srinivasan,' continued the officer who identified himself as coming from 'Homeland Security' as the roommate recorded. 'Did you get enough video?' he added. The officers left, taking nothing for evidence. A DHS news release heralded Srinivasan's departure but did not mention unreported summonses, instead alleging she was 'involved in activities supporting Hamas.' The release was headlined: 'Columbia University Student Whose Visa Was Revoked for Supporting Hamas and Terrorist Activities Used CBP Home App to Self-Deport.' The app, introduced the day before Srinivasan left, includes a feature for immigrants without legal permission to be in the US to inform the government they intend to depart. There was also a damning post on X from Secretary Kristi Noem: 'It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live & study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country. I'm glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self deport.' Yaffe said the statements about Srinivasan were 'absolutely false.' 'She has basically been a private person, pursuing her studies and pursuing her career,' he said. 'She's been a student, and they not only took that away from her in the sense of forcing her out of the country … but they also took away her privacy, obviously, and made her the huge public face of this campaign of repression that they're undertaking with the deliberate desire, as the administration has said, to send a message to other students.' Srinivasan also takes issue with how she was portrayed. She denies using the CBP Home app, saying it wasn't on her phone and anyway her device was almost dead at the airport. 'I didn't even know the app existed. I just left,' she said. As for her politics, she said: 'I'm not a terrorist sympathizer, I'm not a pro-Hamas activist. I'm just literally a random student … It just seems very strange that they would spend so much, vast resources, in persecuting me.' For now, she's trying to stay optimistic about getting back to her life and doctorate. She was due to complete it in May. She hopes somehow Columbia can reenroll her so her five years of study with them is not for naught. But she's unhappy with the actions of the Ivy League school, which has made policy changes apparently to address demands from the Trump administration since she left. The interim president of Columbia University stepped down the following week. 'I do think that Columbia should have protected me against this. I think that that's part of their mandate,' Srinivasan said. 'When you're attracting these international students to come and study at Columbia, when you go and do outreach all across the world to attract the best and the brightest, you have a mandate to protect them.' She might be an expert in planning, but Srinivasan is not trying to look too far ahead and is set on two goals. 'I want my PhD. I want my name cleared.'
Al Jazeera
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
‘Columbia let me down': How Indian scholar expelled by Trump fled the US
It had to be spam. That's what 37-year-old Ranjani Srinivasan thought when she first received an email from the United States consulate in Chennai, the southern Indian city where the Columbia University PhD candidate is from, telling her that her visa had been cancelled. The email, which arrived at midnight, had slipped past Srinivasan's tired eyes before she went to bed. But on Thursday, March 6, at about 7:50am in New York City, it was almost the first thing she saw when she stirred awake in her Columbia-owned apartment. Still groggy, she reached for her phone, its screen glowing in the dim morning haze. She turned to her PhD cohort on their WhatsApp group to check if anyone else had received similar emails about their visas – but no one had. Now uneasy, Srinivasan promptly entered her details into the US online immigration website. 'It said my visa had been revoked. That's when I started getting scared,' she recalls. It was the start of 10 days of confusion and fear for Srinivasan that culminated in her name and grainy airport camera image making global headlines after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused her of being a 'terrorist sympathiser' on X. By then, Srinivasan was in Canada, staying with friends and family, having flown out of New York on March 11, four days before Noem's post, after concluding that she could be arrested – even though the US government has still not made clear whether she is accused of any crime. She rejects the suggestion that she is supportive of terrorists, but assumes her visa was revoked because of online support for Palestine as Israel's brutal war on Gaza continues. And she recalls how she spent those final few days in New York before she left, unable to sleep and barely able to eat, jumping at every strange noise – a life she does not want to risk returning to. At about 8:30am, she emailed Columbia's International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO), seeking clarification on what the visa revocation meant for her status in the US. There was no emergency hotline to call. 'When they didn't reply, I reached out to my dean and adviser – everyone. They had to pressure ISSO to respond.' It wasn't until late afternoon that she finally heard back. In their written response, the ISSO assured her that she was 'perfectly fine' and that her Form I-20 – the fundamental document that foreign students in the US need to stay there legally – remained valid. The ISSO then asked her to schedule an adviser appointment. Initially, they offered her a slot for the following Tuesday. But when she insisted the matter was urgent, the office moved the meeting up, scheduling it for the next day, Thursday, March 7. At 10:30am the next day, she logged onto a Zoom call with the ISSO representative, who reassured her again that her Form I-20 was still valid. 'The moment I got this info, I felt much lighter,' Ranjani recalls. 'I started planning when I could go back to the field [for research].' In December 2024, her visa – originally set to expire in August 2025 – had been renewed until 2029. She wondered about possible reasons why her visa had been revoked. 'Maybe they just gave me too long of a visa,' she remembers thinking. 'All these things were running through my head. I was also considering whether I should resume teaching my 60 students, start working again on guiding them.' But 10 minutes into the Zoom call, there was a knock on the door. Her American flatmate, who was at home at the time, felt there was something unusual about the knock. 'Without opening the door, she asked them to identify themselves,' Srinivasan says. The individuals at the door first claimed to be police, then a 'supervisor,' without providing credentials, Srinivasan says. When the flatmate asked: 'Supervisor of what?', they responded: 'Immigration,' according to Srinivasan's account. Speaking from the other side of the door, they said that her visa had been revoked and that they intended to put her through proceedings to remove her from the US. They eventually left, and though they never fully identified themselves, Srinivasan is convinced they were Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. 'I freaked out. Why is ICE at my door? You live in Columbia residential housing – a place you'd definitely consider safe. So the fact that they were able to enter Columbia's residential area without a warrant was terrifying,' she says. Still on the call, Srinivasan immediately informed the ISSO adviser. 'She had an expression of shock,' Srinivasan says. 'Then she muted herself and started calling people frantically.' When the ISSO adviser unmuted, she handed Srinivasan a list of lawyers and advised her to call Public Safety – the campus security guards. Public Safety advised her to not open the door to ICE officials and informed her that they would 'file a report'. But that did little to reassure her. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Kendall Easley, a spokesperson for Columbia's ISSO, said that 'consistent with our longstanding practice, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including residential University buildings'. Yet, Srinivasan says, 'they [law enforcement officers] were on campus.' 'At this point, I realised that nobody was really helping me. I sat in the flat for two more hours, extremely scared – jumpy. The walls in our building aren't thick, so any noise in the corridor made me flinch, thinking they were back with a warrant.' Unable to shake the fear of being detained at any moment, she packed quickly and left for a location that Srinivasan does not want to disclose. There was no time for sentimentality – just a quiet exit with a laptop bag, her PhD notebook, a handful of chargers, and a small carry-on with a few clothes, a bottle of shampoo, and a box of tampons. 'I just took the bag I randomly grab every day for the PhD office,' she recalls. She walked out of the flat she had called home since 2021, leaving behind everything; her furniture, all her remaining belongings, the Indian groceries she had ordered the night before, and even Cricket, her beloved cat. Srinivasan says that Danielle Smoller, the dean of student affairs at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, called her on March 7 after hearing from public safety about the visit by immigration officials. 'She was sympathetic but admitted it 'felt like ISSO and even Columbia are not in control,'' Srinivasan says. According to her, Columbia made no further effort to contact her. The ISSO did not respond specifically to Al Jazeera's questions about Srinivasan's complaint that Columbia made little further effort to help her. 'Columbia has taken and will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure our international students and scholars know they are welcomed on our campus and in our community,' Easley, the spokesperson, said. 'We are proud of our long history of welcoming students and scholars from around the world to learn, teach, and grow with us.' That's not what it felt like to Srinivasan. On March 8 at 6:20pm, the agents returned – again without a warrant. 'My flatmate told me they said, 'We're going to keep coming every day until we can put you in removal proceedings,'' Srinivasan says. The flatmate did not say anything to the agents, according to what she told Srinivasan. That same day, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate who had a Green Card – making him a permanent resident of the US – was arrested from Columbia housing. Khalil had been a leader of the pro-Palestinian protests on campus over the past year. 'The moment Mahmoud got arrested, it sent shockwaves across the Columbia community. He's a Green Card holder,' Srinivasan says. 'That's when I realised I have no rights in this system at all. It was only a matter of time before they caught hold of me. 'The thing is, I didn't even know Mahmoud. I hadn't even heard his name until he disappeared,' she says. 'But what truly unsettled me was that Columbia already knew ICE was operating on campus – yet seemed uninterested in intervening and even appeared to be colluding with them before Mahmoud disappeared.' On March 9, ISSO informed Srinivasan that her student status had been revoked. Columbia followed by officially withdrawing her enrolment and notifying her to vacate university housing. Srinivasan knew her time in the US was up. She wasn't about to wait to be deported. On March 11, she left for Canada using a visitor visa she had obtained for previous academic workshops and conferences. Once she was out of the US, Srinivasan's lawyers notified ICE of her departure on March 14. ICE responded by demanding proof. Her lawyers were still compiling proof of her departure when, on March 14, Noem posted a now-viral security camera clip of Srinivasan at LaGuardia airport. The caption labelled her a 'terrorist sympathizer,' stating that those who 'advocate terrorism and violence' must not be allowed to remain in the US. The accusation stunned Srinivasan. 'It was the first time I was hearing such speculations in an official voice,' she says. 'If supporting the idea of human rights or ending a genocide is equated with supporting Hamas, then anyone in proximity to me – without me having done anything – can just be picked up and made an example of.' She believes she was targeted for her speech and limited social media activity, which included posts and shares of content critical of Israel's actions in Gaza. While she had signed several open letters supporting Palestinian rights, she insists she was never part of any organised campus group. Although she had participated in pro-Palestine protests in the past, she says she wasn't even in the US for most of April 2024, when student-led demonstrations escalated across campuses. The official announcement also claimed that she had 'self-deported' using the newly launched US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home app, which allows undocumented immigrants to submit an 'intent to depart' form and leave voluntarily. Srinivasan, however, says she had never even heard of the app. Al Jazeera reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with a series of questions: On what specific grounds was Srinivasan's visa revoked? Was she informed of the reasons in advance? And does DHS have evidence linking her to activities that warranted such action? The department has not responded yet. 'The tweet was the first time I could clearly see that they had linked me to the protests,' she says. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Student Workers of Columbia (UAW Local 2710), the union that represents more than 3,000 graduate and undergraduate student workers at the Ivy League university, said 'Ranjani's case exposes a dangerous precedent'. 'There is an exception being created for protests where anyone who even speaks about Palestine is targeted.' The union argued that graduate students on campus today feel increasingly vulnerable. 'International students, in particular, feel disposable – at the mercy of the state, with no protection or support from the university,' the statement said. SWC accused Columbia of enabling this repression. 'Trump abducted our classmates and cut our research funding – but he couldn't have done this if Columbia hadn't fueled the lie that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, inflaming hate against pro-Palestine protests. 'International and undocumented students are afraid to leave their homes, let alone teach seminars, attend class, or go to the lab,' the statement said. 'Fighting for Ranjani's reinstatement,' it said, 'isn't just about basic rights – it's about our survival.' In the week leading up to her departure for Canada, Srinivasan's anxiety was compounded by her worries about how she would break the news to her parents. She wanted to control how her family learned about the situation, and feared that the media might get to know first. She eventually called her father and mother, informing them that her visa had been revoked but assuring them she was OK. 'I assured them, but I didn't give them all the details about ICE being after me. Of course, now they know the whole story,' she says. The day the DHS tweet went out, fear took over. Her parents were worried for their safety even in Chennai, and left to stay with relatives, unsure how to respond. 'We are ordinary people, an ordinary family. Who would ever imagine something like this happening to them?' Srinivasan says. Their fears weren't unfounded. As the tweet spread, so did misinformation, especially in the Indian media, where speculation and misreporting around her name only deepened their anxiety. It was only after things began to settle, after they started feeling safer, that her parents returned home. Now, even if her visa is reinstated and if Columbia restores her enrolment, Srinivasan is unsure whether she would feel secure returning to the US to complete her PhD. 'I hope Columbia comes to its senses and re-enrols me,' she says. 'All the requirements for my PhD are complete, and whatever is left, I don't even need to be in the US for. So I'm trying to appeal to Columbia to do that.' But irrespective of what happens, Srinivsan feels a deep sense of betrayal. 'I spent five years at Columbia, working – I don't know – maybe 100 hours a week sometimes,' she says. 'I never expected the institution to let me down. But it did.'
CBC
19-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Grad student who fled U.S. says claims about her alleged support of Hamas are 'absurd'
A graduate student who fled the United States over fears she would be detained amid a crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters denies allegations by U.S. authorities that she has been involved in activities promoting Hamas. "I'm not a 'terrorist sympathizer,'" said Ranjani Srinivasan, referring to terminology the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its secretary have publicly labelled her with. "So, I just find it kind of absurd." Srinivasan, who is currently in Canada, spoke to CBC News about her predicament. She fears for her safety and CBC News agreed not to reveal her location. She specifically denies participating in a high-profile protest at Columbia University, where students took over a building and police officers subsequently stormed it to end the occupation last spring. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has been taking steps to single out pro-Palestinian protesters it holds culpable for involvement in a slew of protests on U.S. college campuses. In January, Trump pledged to deport some non-citizen college students who participated in such protests. "I was extremely afraid of being detained," said Srinivasan, who pointed to the detention of some fellow Columbia University students as a reason for her concerns about her safety. Sudden events Until recently, Srinivasan had been a doctoral student in urban planning at New York City's Columbia University. Between pursuing her studies and grading students' papers, she "rarely left the office," Srinivasan says. Then she learned her student visa was being revoked, and that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been knocking on her door seeking to detain her. She decided to leave the country, via a Canada-bound flight from New York's LaGuardia airport.
