One Indian student who participated in pro-Palestine protests in the U.S. has "self-deported" following the revocation of her student visa, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that Ranjani Srinivasan "was involved in activities advocating for Hamas, a terror-designated organization" and departed the U.S. on March 11 after her visa was cancelled by the State Department.
Srinivasan, an Indian citizen, was pursuing a doctorate in urban planning at Columbia University, which became a focal point for student-led protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza. The university witnessed a violent campus building takeover, leading to several student arrests when authorities were called in to restore order.
Noem underscored that learning in the U.S. is "a privilege," continuing, "When you are an advocate of violence and terrorism, that privilege must be taken away, and you cannot be here."
The Department of Homeland Security revealed that one video demonstrated Srinivasan utilizing the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) application to trigger her own exit from the U.S.
"I am happy to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport," Noem said, posting a video of Srinivasan at an airport.
It is not known if Srinivasan was arrested during the protests or if she openly showed support for Hamas, as most protesters mainly objected to Israel's military response in Gaza after the Hamas attack.
By voluntarily leaving, Srinivasan escaped possible forced deportation, which has had some people sent back to India on U.S. military planes, as in earlier deportations.
Srinivasan was a research scholar at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.
Her educational credentials include a bachelor's degree from CEPT University in Ahmedabad and a master's degree from Harvard University, where she was a Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholar.
On Columbia's website, she is addressed using the gender-neutral pronoun "they."
Her research, funded by the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard, was on the Kolar Gold Fields, "Gold & Cyanide: Family, Caste, and the Post-extractive Landscape."
She also collaborated with an environmental nonprofit advocacy organization in Washington, working on climate risks to frontier communities, and served as a researcher for the West Philadelphia Landscape Project at MIT.
In turn, the Trump administration has placed Columbia University under closer scrutiny, accusing it of not stopping protests that supposedly had spilled over into anti-Semitism and threatened Jewish students and teachers.
The administration, in response, has held back $400 million in federal aid to the institution.
Last week, a former Palestinian student at Columbia who was active in earlier protests was arrested by immigration officials and now risks deportation.
Mahmoud Khalil, who was a green card holder, has had his residency status stripped, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. A federal judge has temporarily stopped his deportation, however.
Noem also disclosed that another Palestinian student at Columbia, Leqaa Kordia, was arrested for overstaying her visa. Kordia had a previous arrest associated with previous Gaza-related protests in New York City.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged that the Justice Department and Homeland Security are examining if Columbia University was "harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus."
University Interim President Katrina Armstrong indicated that immigration agents, with court warrants in hand, raided two dorm room spaces but made no arrests during that raid.
Several students who took part in the campus building occupation have since been expelled from Columbia.
These events have precipitated a rebellion among faculty and students and caused protests at Trump Tower as well as on campus against the government crackdown.
Read also| Israel Acknowledges Use of Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza for First Time: Report
