{"id":131894,"date":"2025-03-31T01:28:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T01:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/a-look-at-who-has-been-detained-or-deported-in-a-us-crackdown-on-mostly-pro-palestinian-protesters-the-associated-press\/"},"modified":"2025-03-31T01:28:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T01:28:30","slug":"a-look-at-who-has-been-detained-or-deported-in-a-us-crackdown-on-mostly-pro-palestinian-protesters-the-associated-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/a-look-at-who-has-been-detained-or-deported-in-a-us-crackdown-on-mostly-pro-palestinian-protesters-the-associated-press\/","title":{"rendered":"A look at who has been detained or deported in a US crackdown on mostly pro-Palestinian protesters – The Associated Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)
Hundreds of people gather on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Somerville, Mass. to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP Photo\/Michael Casey)
Hundreds of people gather on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Somerville, Mass. to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP Photo\/Michael Casey)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)
This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)
Hundreds of people gather on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Somerville, Mass. to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP Photo\/Michael Casey)
Hundreds of people gather on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Somerville, Mass. to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP Photo\/Michael Casey)
Hundreds of people gather on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Somerville, Mass. to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP Photo\/Michael Casey)
Hundreds of people gather on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Somerville, Mass. to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP Photo\/Michael Casey)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
People with ties to American universities, most of whom have shown support for pro-Palestinian causes, have been detained in the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on immigrants.
President Donald Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being \u201cpro-Hamas,\u201d referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against Israel\u2019s actions in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Trump\u2019s administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing the secretary of state to revoke visas of noncitizens who could be considered a threat to foreign policy interests. More than half a dozen people are known to have been taken into custody or deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in recent weeks.
Federal officers detained 30-year-old Turkish student<\/a><\/span> Rumeysa Ozturk on Tuesday as she walked along a street in suburban Boston. A senior Department of Homeland Security<\/a><\/span> spokesperson said without providing evidence that an investigation found Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, \u201cengaged in activities in support of Hamas,\u201d which is also a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)
This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)
Friends and colleagues of Ozturk said her only known activism was co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel. Ozturk has been taken to an ICE detention center in Louisiana. A U.S. District judge in Massachusetts on Friday said Ozturk can\u2019t be deported to Turkey<\/a><\/span> without a court order and gave the government until Tuesday evening to respond to an updated complaint filed by Ozturk\u2019s attorneys.
This month, immigration enforcement agents arrested and detained<\/a><\/span> Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, Palestinian activist and graduate student who was prominent in protests<\/a><\/span> at Columbia last year. The administration has said it revoked Khalil\u2019s green card because his role in the campus protests amounted to antisemitic support for Hamas. He is fighting deportation.<\/p>\n

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Khalil served as a negotiator for Columbia students<\/a><\/span> as they bargained with university officials over ending their campus encampment last spring. He was born in Syria and is married to an American citizen. His lawyers urged a federal judge on Friday<\/a><\/span> to free their client from a Louisiana immigration detention center and argued his case should not be moved to Louisiana courts. The judge said he would issue a decision soon.
Yunseo Chung is a Columbia student and lawful U.S. resident who moved to America from Korea as a child. Chung attended and was arrested at a sit-in this month at nearby Barnard College<\/a><\/span> protesting the expulsion of students who participated in pro-Palestinian activism.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to deport Chung and has said she \u201cengaged in concerning conduct,\u201d including being arrested on a misdemeanor charge. A judge ordered immigration agents not to detain Chung<\/a><\/span> while her legal challenge is pending.
Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown scholar from India, was arrested outside his Virginia home and detained by masked Homeland Security agents<\/a><\/span> on allegations that he spread Hamas propaganda. Suri\u2019s attorney wrote in a court filing that he was targeted because of his social media posts and his wife\u2019s \u201cidentity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.\u201d Suri holds a visa authorizing him to be in the U.S. as a visiting scholar, and his wife is a U.S. citizen, according to court documents.
Suri was taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, according to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings.
Leqaa Kordia, a resident of Newark, New Jersey, was detained and accused of failing to leave the U.S. after her student visa expired. Federal authorities said Kordia is a Palestinian from the West Bank and that she was arrested at or near Columbia during pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia has said it has no record of her being a student there.
Kordia is being held in an immigration detention center in Alvarado, Texas, according to a government database.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral student at Columbia, fled the U.S. after immigration agents searched for her at her university residence. The Trump administration has said it revoked Srinivasan\u2019s visa for \u201cadvocating for violence and terrorism.\u201d Srinivasan opted to \u201cself-deport.\u201d<\/a><\/span>
Officials didn\u2019t say what evidence they have that Srinivasan advocated violence. Her lawyers deny the accusations, and she told The New York Times<\/a><\/span> that she didn\u2019t help to organize protests at Columbia.
University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi<\/a><\/span> of Iran was detained by ICE on Tuesday. David Rozas, a lawyer representing Doroudi, says Douridi was studying mechanical engineering. His student visa was revoked in 2023, but his lawyer has said he was eligible to continue his studies as long as he maintained his student status and met other requirements of his entry into the United States.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Friday that the arrest was made over the revocation of Doroudi\u2019s student visa, saying he \u201cposed significant national security concerns.\u201d A spokesperson said they could not share additional details.
Unlike some other students targeted by ICE, Dorudi\u2019s lawyer said there is no indication that his client was involved in any political protests. Doroudi told his lawyer he isn\u2019t aware of any suspected criminal activity or violations. He was detained in Alabama but will be moved to an immigration facility in Jena, Louisiana.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist from Lebanon who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported this month, even though a federal judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held. Homeland Security officials said Alawieh was deported<\/a><\/span> as soon as she returned to the U.S. from Lebanon, despite having a U.S. visa, because she \u201copenly admitted\u201d supporting former Hezbollah leader<\/a><\/span>Hassan Nasrallah<\/a><\/span>. Alawieh told officers she followed him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics, court documents said.
She was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine. Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh\u2019s lawyer, has said she will fight to get the 34-year-old doctor back to the U.S.
Momodou Taal is a doctoral student at Cornell University whose visa was revoked after he participated in campus demonstrations.
Taal, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia, has asked a federal judge to halt his detention during his court challenge. The government says it revoked Taal\u2019s student visa because of his alleged involvement in \u201cdisruptive protests.\u201d
His attorneys say the 31-year-old doctoral student in Africana studies was exercising free speech rights. Taal said he will surrender to immigration authorities if the court determines the government is acting legally. Taal said in a court declaration that \u201cI feel like a prisoner already, although all I have done is exercise my rights.\u201d <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)Hundreds of people gather on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Somerville, Mass. to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP Photo\/Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}