A husband and expectant father; a former highschool valedictorian; an architect and adjunct professor of city planning, and a former Fulbright Scholar with a ardour for youngster schooling. All legally residing within the U.S.
They’re additionally simply a few of the targets of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in latest weeks as a part of a marketing campaign by President Donald Trump’s Administration to detain and deport noncitizens over their pro-Palestinian campus activism.
“That is the primary arrest of many to come back,” Trump mentioned in a submit on Reality Social, following the arrest of Palestinian graduate pupil Mahmoud Khalil. “When you assist terrorism, together with the slaughtering of harmless males, girls, and youngsters, your presence is opposite to our nationwide and international coverage pursuits, and you aren’t welcome right here. We anticipate each certainly one of America’s Faculties and Universities to conform.”
It’s an effort that has raised questions on free speech and the rights of authorized noncitizens, and it’s prompted authorized challenges and protests in assist of the focused college students.
Right here’s what we learn about a few of the college students who’ve been focused by ICE to this point:
Rumeysa Ozturk
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish worldwide pupil on a legitimate F-1 visa for her PhD research at Tufts College in Boston, grew to become the newest high-profile goal of ICE after her arrest, which witnesses caught on video, exterior her dwelling in Somerville, Mass., on Tuesday evening.
Ozturk was strolling alone on a sidewalk, on her means again dwelling after assembly mates for iftar, a meal to interrupt quick at sundown throughout Ramadan, when a plainsclothes officer, carrying a hat and a hoodie, approached her, surveillance video obtained from a neighbor and posted on X on Wednesday exhibits. The officer grabbed Ozturk by the arms, inflicting her to yell out, earlier than 5 different plainsclothes officers approached her. One officer pulled out a hid badge and confiscated her cellphone. The officers advised her, “We’re the police.” An individual off digital camera may very well be heard saying, “You don’t seem like it, why are you hiding your faces? How do I do know that is the police?” whereas the officers—who wore material face masks—escorted Ozturk to a black SUV. The complete encounter lasted slightly below two minutes.
Ozturk obtained a level in psychology and Turkish language and literature from Istanbul Şehir College earlier than coming to the U.S. in 2018 on a Fulbright Scholarship to earn a grasp’s in developmental and youngster psychology from Columbia College’s Lecturers Faculty, in keeping with her LinkedIn. Captivated with youngsters’s media and schooling, her LinkedIn says, she’s printed analysis into the illustration of refugee characters in youngsters’s animated TV, interned at a consulting agency advising leisure studios on youngsters’s content material and growth, and taught programs on media and schooling to highschool college students.
Final 12 months, Ozturk co-authored an op-ed in Tufts’ pupil newspaper, The Tufts Day by day, backing the Tufts Group Union Senate’s name for the college to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, … dislose its investments and divest from corporations with direct or oblique ties to Israel.”
After she was detained, Ozturk’s legal professional filed a petition asking that Ozturk stay held in Massachusetts, which was granted. Nonetheless, ICE transferred her to Central Louisiana ICE Processing Heart, which is infamous for unsanitary circumstances, harsh punitive measures, and “a tradition of abuse,” in keeping with reporting by CNN. Jeff Migliozzi, communications director for advocacy group Freedom for Immigrants, advised CNN that ICE detention facilities are deliberately remotely situated, making them “successfully black bins.”
“We’re unaware of her whereabouts and haven’t been capable of contact her. No costs have been filed towards Rumeysa thus far that we’re conscious of,” Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, advised the AP. The Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., mentioned in an announcement on X that the embassy is monitoring Ozturk’s state of affairs and is in contact with the State Division and ICE.
Yunseo Chung
ICE can’t arrest 21-year-old Yunseo Chung, a decide dominated on Tuesday, granting a short lived restraining order towards the federal government after her attorneys filed a lawsuit towards the Trump Administration for making an attempt to deport her regardless of her authorized standing.
At seven years previous, Chung emigrated to the U.S. along with her household from South Korea and have become a lawful everlasting resident, in keeping with the lawsuit. She was valedictorian at her highschool and enrolled in 2022 at Columbia College, the place she was finding out English and gender research.
The 21-year-old reportedly attended—however was not a frontrunner of—a sit-in at Barnard Faculty protesting the expulsion of scholars who had participated in pro-Palestinian activism on March 5, in keeping with the lawsuit. When an obvious white supremacist bomb risk was referred to as (later decided to be a hoax), law enforcement officials instructed protesters to exit the constructing. Chung was caught within the rush to exit, the lawsuit says, and was arrested, charged with obstruction of governmental administration, given a “desk look ticket,” and launched. She was suspended from Columbia because of the arrest on March 7. On March 9, ICE brokers searched her mother and father’ dwelling in an try to search out her, the lawsuit alleges. The brokers additionally obtained a warrant towards “harboring noncitizens” to go looking her Columbia dormitory. A regulation enforcement official advised her lawyer that her everlasting resident standing was being revoked.
A spokesperson for the Division of Homeland Safety advised the Columbia Spectator, Columbia’s pupil newspaper, that Chung “engaged in regarding conduct, together with when she was arrested by NYPD throughout a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard Faculty. She is being searched for elimination proceedings underneath the immigration legal guidelines.” Chung had beforehand participated in, however not organized or led, protests and occasions on the Gaza Solidary Encampment on Columbia’s campus final spring, in keeping with the lawsuit. She additionally confronted disciplinary proceedings from Columbia for vandalism after placing up posters with photographs of members of Columbia’s Board of Trustees with the phrases, “Wished for Complicity in Genocide.” After a assessment, the college discovered Chung had not violated any insurance policies, the lawsuit says.
The criticism filed by Chung’s attorneys alleges that the administration is demonstrating a “sample and apply of focusing on people related to protests for Palestinian rights for immigration enforcement” and described the federal government’s actions as an “unprecedented and unjustifiable assault on First Modification and different rights…” As of Wednesday, the Trump Administration has not appealed the short-term restraining order.
Badar Khan Suri
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen finding out and instructing at Georgetown College on a legitimate J-1 visa, was detained by ICE on March 17.
Suri, who lives in Arlington, Va., was, like Ozturk, approached by masked males exterior his dwelling after an iftar gathering. Suri’s lawyer, Nermeen Arastu, advised CNN that the officers have been “brandishing weapons.” The brokers recognized themselves as members of DHS and advised Suri that the federal government had revoked his visa, in keeping with a lawsuit filed for his quick launch. The lawsuit alleges that the federal government is in search of to deport Suri underneath a hardly ever used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that offers the Secretary of State the authority to deport noncitizens for whom the Secretary has “affordable floor to imagine” their presence or actions within the U.S. “would have probably critical opposed international coverage penalties.”
“Throughout his time on campus, I’m not conscious that Dr. Suri has engaged in any criminal activity, nor has he posed a risk to the safety of our campus. He has been targeted on finishing his analysis,” Joel Hellman, dean of Georgetown’s College of International Service, wrote in an announcement on March 21.
Suri has no prison report and has not been charged with any crime, in keeping with the lawsuit. Relatively, the lawsuit alleges Suri has been focused as a result of his spouse, a U.S. citizen, is of Palestinian heritage and due to her previous “constitutionally protected free speech.” The couple has “lengthy been doxxed and smeared,” the petition says, together with being posted on an anonymously-run blacklisting web site. Nader Hashemi, a professor of Center East and Islamic politics at Georgetown, advised Democracy Now! That Suri is “not a political activist. He was only a very critical younger tutorial specializing in his instructing and his analysis.”
Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Suri’s detention after it was first reported by Politico. In a submit on X, McLaughlin referred to as Suri a “international alternate pupil at Georgetown College actively spreading Hamas propaganda and selling antisemitism on social media.” McLaughlin added that Suri has “shut connections to a recognized or suspected terrorist, who’s a senior advisor to Hamas.” Suri’s spouse, Mapheze Saleh, was previously employed at Qatari-based information outlet Al Jazeera, and her father served as a political adviser to the “Prime Minister of Gaza” (the late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, in keeping with the New York Occasions) till 2010, in keeping with a courtroom declaration filed on March 20.
A federal decide dominated on March 20 that the Trump Administration couldn’t deport Suri whereas his case difficult his detention is being reviewed in courtroom. Suri was held on the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana earlier than being transferred to the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas, which has additionally confronted complaints about its circumstances. Suri’s arrest and detention prompted protests on Wednesday by Georgetown College college students and lecturers calling for his launch.
Momodou Taal
Momodou Taal, a 31-year-old Cornell graduate pupil and twin U.Ok. and Gambian citizen, had his pupil visa revoked on March 14 and now faces the specter of deportation.
Taal participated in pro-Palestinian protests final 12 months, inflicting him to be suspended twice and vulnerable to shedding his pupil visa. He additionally confronted backlash after posting on X: “colonised peoples have the precise to withstand by any means needed” after the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel. In a Nov. 2023 interview with CNN, Taal mentioned, “I can say clearly categorically I abhor the killing of all civilians regardless of the place they’re and who does it. I like life. I don’t love dying. That’s what I’m as a human being. Why is it the affiliation as a result of I’m a Muslim and I’m a Black individual, I’ve to sentence a proscribed terrorist group earlier than having an opinion on genocide?” Taal was banned from campus for the rest of the spring 2025 semester after protesting at a profession truthful attended by protection contractors.
Taal sought to preemptively block immigration enforcement towards him by submitting a lawsuit towards the Trump Administration on March 15. The criticism, representing Taal and two different pupil activists, mentioned the plaintiffs “worry authorities retaliation” for participating in “constitutionally protected expression vital of U.S. international coverage and supportive of Palestinian human rights.”
Taal, a PhD pupil in Africana research, was requested to give up to ICE brokers six days later. His attorneys, together with Eric Lee, filed an emergency request blocking his detainment or deportation whereas the courtroom critiques the constitutional problem.
Round 200 college students and college protested on Cornell’s Ithaca campus final week in assist of Taal. “I want I may very well be with you all in individual, however the state of affairs has received to the purpose the place it’s now not secure,” Lee learn from an announcement by Taal initially of the protest. “Momodou Taal is a take a look at case to find out whether or not the federal government can come to your own home, seize you and put you in jail for criticizing the USA authorities and its insurance policies,” Lee mentioned Wednesday after a listening to.
Mahmoud Khalil
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested at his dwelling by ICE brokers on March 8, 2025, and stays in custody as of March 27 at a Louisiana detention facility.
He was born in Syria to Palestinian refugees. Initially meant to review aviation engineering in Syria, he fled the nation’s civil struggle to Beirut, Lebanon, and graduated from the Lebanese American College with a level in pc science in 2018. He labored with a number of nonprofits within the Center East, together with Jusoor, a Syrian-American instructional nonprofit, and the Syria Chevening Programme on the British Embassy in Beirut, which gives worldwide scholarships to review within the U.Ok.—a job that former British diplomat Andrew Waller, and Khalil’s colleague on the time, mentioned required an in depth background test.
Khalil moved to the U.S. in 2022 to attend Columbia’s College of Worldwide and Public Affairs, finishing his grasp’s diploma research in December 2024. He married an American girl—making him eligible for a inexperienced card—who’s eight months pregnant with their first youngster.
The 30-year-old was concerned in a number of of the protests towards the struggle in Gaza at Columbia College final spring, and he led negotiations between pupil protesters and college officers. Detractors say Khalil was a outstanding chief of Columbia College Apartheid Divest, a pupil group calling for Columbia to divest from its monetary ties to Israel and which has been accused of antisemitism although the group rejects the label.
Final 12 months, Khalil was suspended for at some point from Columbia after police cracked down on college students occupying a campus constructing. He advised the BBC on the time that he was performing solely as a protest negotiator and had not participated within the pupil encampment as a result of he had been on a pupil visa. The college rescinded the suspension after discovering they’d no proof towards him. “It exhibits how random the suspension was,” he mentioned on the time. “They did that randomly, and with out due course of.”
The White Home has alleged with out proof that Khalil distributed pro-Hamas supplies at a protest and that he did not disclose his work with the United Nations Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on his inexperienced card software. The UNRWA, a U.N. company that gives assist and reduction to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Financial institution, was banned by Israel final 12 months for allegedly “spreading antisemitism” and having members who took half within the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault. Khalil labored as an unpaid intern with UNRWA in 2023 however was by no means on workers, the company advised CNN.
A decide briefly blocked the tried deportation of Khalil on March 10, pending assessment of his case. Legal professionals for Khalil additionally filed a lawsuit difficult his detention by ICE, and a New York decide dominated his case must be transferred to New Jersey as an alternative of Louisiana, which the Trump Administration pushed for, in addition to reaffirmed the earlier ruling blocking his deportation.
Khalil and 7 different college students filed a lawsuit towards Columbia and the Home Training and Workforce Committee on March 13 in an effort to forestall the disciplinary information of scholars—together with across the pupil occupation of Hamilton Corridor—from being turned over to the Republican-led committee.
Learn Extra: What To Know About Mahmoud Khalil, and Why His Inexperienced Card Was Revoked
Ranjani Srinivasan
Ranjani Srinivasan, a 37-year-old architect, got here to the U.S. from Chennai, India, as a Fulbright recipient in 2016, grew to become a PhD candidate at Columbia in 2020, and commenced instructing as an adjunct professor at New York College final fall. She was within the fifth 12 months of her doctoral diploma at Columbia College’s Division of City Planning when ICE brokers knocked at her door on March 7.
Srinivasan realized that her pupil visa had been revoked by the Division of State by way of an electronic mail on March 5. She sought assist from Columbia’s worldwide college students workplace and was advised she was in authorized standing, in keeping with a letter printed on political scientist Norman Finkelstein’s web site. However when three ICE brokers got here to her Columbia College condo with no warrant two days later, she grew to become frightened, in keeping with the New York Occasions. Her roommate, an American citizen, refused to let the brokers in.
Discovering little recourse by the college’s hotlines, Srinivasan left for a safer location. On March 9, ICE terminated her Pupil and Change Customer Data System (SEVIS) standing—which permits worldwide college students entry into and nonpermanent residence within the U.S.—and the college de-enrolled her, in keeping with the letter. Going through the danger of detention and deportation, Srinivasan left the U.S. for Canada.
Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem posted on X airport surveillance footage displaying Srinivasan at LaGuardia Airport in New York. “Whenever you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege must be revoked and also you shouldn’t be on this nation,” Noem wrote within the submit, including that Srinivasan selected to “self deport.” Srinivasan’s attorneys denied the allegations towards her, in keeping with the Occasions.
In her letter posted to Finkelstein’s web site, Srinivasan maintained that she solely attended “a handful of low-level protests,” and, in keeping with the Occasions, she signed a number of open letters associated to the struggle in Gaza. She was arrested by police final 12 months on the day that college students occupied Hamilton Corridor, however mentioned she had solely been strolling by the gang to return to her condo. She acquired two summonses—for obstructing vehicular or pedestrian visitors and for refusing to disperse—however her case was dismissed, her attorneys advised the Occasions.
“They’re making me out to be some kind of protest chief, which I’m not,” Srinivasan advised Indian information website The Information Minute. “I’m only a PhD pupil who has an excessive amount of work. Even when I wished to go to a protest, I largely don’t have time as a result of I’m busy grading papers.”
