Immigration Officials Arrest Second Person Who Participated In Columbia Protests | EUROtoday
NEW YORK (AP) — Immigration officers have arrested a second one that participated in Pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, and have revoked the visa of one other scholar, they introduced Friday.
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested by immigration officers for overstaying her scholar visa, the Department of Homeland Security mentioned. Kordia’s visa was terminated in January 2022 for “lack of attendance,” the division mentioned. Kordia was beforehand arrested for her involvement in protests at Columbia in April 2024, it added.
The Trump administration additionally revoked the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral scholar, on March 5 “for advocating for violence and terrorism.” On Tuesday, Srinivasan opted to “self-deport,” the division mentioned.
The announcement comes after the current arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead scholar protests on the college and is dealing with deportation.
Khalil was rushed from New York to Louisiana final weekend in a way that left the outspoken Columbia University graduate scholar feeling like he was being kidnapped, his attorneys wrote in an up to date lawsuit in search of his speedy launch.
The attorneys described intimately what occurred to the Palestinian activist as he was flown to Louisiana by brokers he mentioned by no means recognized themselves. Once there, he was left to sleep in a bunker with no pillow or blanket as prime U.S. officers cheered the hassle to deport a person his attorneys say typically turned the “public face” of scholar protests on Columbia’s campus towards Israel’s navy actions in Gaza.
The submitting late Thursday in Manhattan federal courtroom was the results of a federal choose’s Wednesday order that they lastly be allowed to talk with Khalil.
The attorneys mentioned his therapy by federal authorities from Saturday, when he was first arrested, to Monday reminded Khalil of when he left Syria shortly after the compelled disappearance of his associates there throughout a interval of arbitrary detention in 2013.
“Throughout this process, Mr. Khalil felt as though he was being kidnapped,” the attorneys wrote of his therapy.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the primary “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport college students he mentioned have interaction in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
In courtroom papers, attorneys for the Justice Department mentioned Kahlil was detained beneath a legislation permitting Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take away somebody from the nation if he has cheap grounds to consider their presence or actions would have doubtlessly severe hostile overseas coverage penalties.
Trump and Rubio had been added as defendants within the civil lawsuit in search of to free Khalil.
The authorities attorneys requested a choose to toss out the lawsuit or switch it to New Jersey or Louisiana, saying jurisdiction belongs within the places the place Khalil has been held since his detention.
According to the lawsuit, Khalil repeatedly requested to talk to a lawyer after the U.S. everlasting resident with no prison historical past was snatched by federal brokers as he and his spouse had been returning to Columbia’s residential housing, the place they lived, after dinner at a buddy’s dwelling.
Confronted by brokers for the Department of Homeland Security, Khalil briefly telephoned his lawyer earlier than he was taken to FBI headquarters in decrease Manhattan, the lawsuit mentioned.
It was there that Khalil noticed an agent strategy one other agent and say, “the White House is requesting an update,” the attorneys wrote.
At some level early Sunday, Khalil was taken, handcuffed and shackled, to the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a privately-run facility the place he spent the night time in a chilly ready room for processing, his request for a blanket denied, the lawsuit mentioned.
When he reached the entrance of the road for processing, he was informed his processing wouldn’t happen in spite of everything as a result of he was being transported by immigration authorities, it mentioned.
Put in a van, Khalil seen that one of many brokers acquired a textual content message instructing that Khalil was to not use his cellphone, the lawsuit mentioned.
At 2:45 p.m. Sunday, he was placed on an American Airlines flight from Kennedy International Airport to Dallas, the place he was placed on a second flight to Alexandria, Louisiana. He arrived at 1 a.m. Monday and a police automotive took him to the Louisiana Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, it mentioned.
At the ability, he now worries about his pregnant spouse and is “also very concerned about missing the birth of his first child,” the lawsuit mentioned.
In April, Khalil was to start a job and obtain well being advantages that the couple was relying on to cowl prices associated to the beginning and care of the kid, it added.
“It is very important to Mr. Khalil to be able to continue his protected political speech, advocating and protesting for the rights of Palestinians — both domestically and abroad,” the lawsuit mentioned, noting that Khalil was planning to talk on a panel on the upcoming premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark, of a documentary wherein he’s featured.
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At a listening to Wednesday, Khalil’s attorneys mentioned that they had not been allowed any attorney-client-protected communications with Khalil since his arrest and had been informed they might communicate to him in 10 days. Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that at the very least one dialog be permitted on Wednesday and Thursday.
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