US Immigration Authorities Arrest a Second Pro-Palestinian Activist

In New Jersey, US immigration officials detained Palestinian activist Kordia on suspicion of having a 2022 expired student visa, DHS said.

The second activist arrested by US immigration authorities is connected to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University in New York City last spring.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Friday that someone from the West Bank named Leqaa Kordia had been apprehended in New Jersey. According to the agency, Kordia had excessively extended her student visa, which had been revoked in 2022 for “lack of attendance.” She was not specified as to whether she had attended Columbia or another school.

Mahmoud Khalil, an activist from Columbia University who was arrested in New York last Saturday and then sent to a Louisiana jail center, was arrested after her.

Additionally, DHS verified that on March 5, the visa of another activist, Columbia doctorate student seeking a degree in urban planning, Ranjani Srinivasan, was canceled. Earlier this week, she made the decision to enter the United States freely.

Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, stated that being given a visa to live and study in the United States of America is an honor. “You shouldn’t be in this country and your privilege should be taken away when you support terrorism and violence.”

Calling DHS’s statement “full of the falsehoods we’ve come to expect,” Srinivasan’s attorney, Ramzi Kassem, reacted negatively to the government’s assertions. She was denied her visa, he claimed, for merely using “protected political speech.”

On numerous occasions, President Donald Trump has charged pro-Palestinian activists with aiding Hamas, a group that the United States has classified as a terrorist organization. Protesters like Khalil ought to be deported, he has maintained.

Khalil, 30, a US green card holder and Columbia graduate of Syrian descent, is still being held. Debate over free speech on college campuses and whether it is lawful to deport a permanent resident of the United States for engaging in political activities has been triggered by his case. His attorneys dispute that he has any connection to Hamas and maintain that he was acting in accordance with the constitution.

In the meantime, two search warrants were carried out by DHS officers on Thursday evening in rooms on the Columbia campus. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the agents were looking into whether the university was “hiding and harboring illegal aliens.”

In response to the raid, Katrina Armstrong, the university’s acting president, wrote to students, saying: “No one was arrested or detained.” Nothing was taken further, and no objects were taken out.

Additionally, Columbia University has lost $400 million in federal money due to the Trump administration’s apparent inability to stop antisemitism on campus. The ruling fuels the issue around the level of federal involvement in campus matters and how colleges respond to political activism.