Tracie Strahan reports.
A second Columbia University student involved with last year's protests has been arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with Homeland Security Investigations, while another had her student visa revoked and self-deported, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
Columbia University couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The night before, DHS agents searched the dorm rooms of two Columbia students after obtaining judicial warrants to do so, the college's interim president said in a statement, adding she was "heartbroken" to inform the community of the intrusion.
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WATCH HERENo one was arrested or detained Thursday. No items were removed, and no further action was taken, Columbia Interim President Katrina Armstrong said.
On Friday, DHS issued a release on two Columbia students. Officials say one student, a Palestinian woman from the West Bank, was arrested by ICE HSI Newark officers for allegedly overstaying her expired F-1 visa. Back in April 2024, the woman had been arrested for her involvement in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, DHS said.
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SIGN UP DHS says the other student, a citizen of India, entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student in urban planning at Columbia, allegedly got involved in activities supporting "Hamas."
Her visa was revoked earlier this month. DHS says it has video showing her use the CBP app to self-deport less than a week later.
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“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. "When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country."
The developments come amid mounting protests to free pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student arrested by ICE agents for his role in last year's protests at the campus.
A judge ruled Khalil will remain detained in Louisiana until at least next week but can speak to lawyers while they fight the Trump administration’s plans to deport him.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.
President Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport students he said engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
Khalil, who acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters, hasn't been charged with a crime.
The White House says the administration moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a non-citizen on foreign policy grounds.
Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration control powers to stop him from speaking out.
