Visa revoked by Trump administration for ‘supporting Hamas’, Indian PhD student at Columbia University self-deports

“Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that one of the Columbia students who had her student visa revoked for advocating for violence and terrorism self-deported using the CBP Home App and ICE arrested a Palestinian student for overstaying her expired F-1 visa,” a DHS statement said.

Her exit follows an escalating crackdown by the Trump administration on foreign nationals involved in last year’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Days ago, another Columbia University student, Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested by ICE HSI Newark officers for overstaying her student visa, which was terminated on January 26, 2022, for lack of attendance.

In April 2024, Kordia was among those arrested for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City. Experts believe that if Srinivasan had not opted for voluntary departure after her visa was revoked, she could have faced action like Kordia.

New Delhi-based immigration lawyer Ravneit Kaur Brar said, “Once the visa is cancelled, one has to leave the country immediately, so she actually left voluntarily. Voluntary departure is a legal process in which a non-citizen is allowed to leave the US without facing formal removal proceedings. It is now called self-deportation.”

It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live & study in the United States of America.

When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country.

I’m glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers… pic.twitter.com/jR2uVVKGCM

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) March 14, 2025

In a statement on X along with a video of Srinivasan at the airport, Noem said, “It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the US. When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. I am glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathisers use the CBP Home app to self-deport.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly red-flagged participation in campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, equating it with support for Hamas. Columbia University, which has a sizable number of international students, including from India, has become a focal point in President Trump’s crackdown on campus activism.

In a letter issued late Thursday night, the administration demanded that Columbia University’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS) be placed in “academic receivership”, wherein an outside authority takes control, often as punishment for mismanagement.

The letter specified that the university must come up with a plan to create the academic receivership role no later than March 20. Failure to comply, the letter warned, would negatively affect “Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government”.

The university became an epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests in 2023 and 2024 as students rallied against the devastation caused by the war. More than 3,000 protesters are estimated to have been arrested by the police in a crackdown across campuses. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian and a former graduate student at Columbia who helped lead the anti-Israel protests, was also arrested recently and is facing deportation.

However, students say they were aware of possible action if they participated in protests. A graduate, who did not want to be named, told The Indian Express from New York, “Very few Indian students participate in protests. Any Indian who protests can be deported, so almost none went ahead, in the graduate level at least.”

After taking office on January 20, Trump immediately issued an executive order calling for the removal of foreigners who bear “hostile attitudes” to US “citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles” or who support “threats to our national security”.

Last week, the Trump administration announced the immediate cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the “school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.

As per the Columbia University website, Srinivasan holds a Bachelor’s in Design from CEPT University in Ahmedabad and was awarded the Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholarships to pursue her master’s degree in Critical Conservation at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.

Srinivasan’s research explored the continuities and transformations of caste rights within extractive economies in post-colonial India and received support from the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute. She has also worked as a project associate at an environmental conservation and planning advocacy nonprofit in Washington, DC, and as a field researcher for international development agencies in South Asia.

Though it’s not clear yet what the possible charges against her are, she is said to have participated in Khalil-led pro-Palestine protests in April 2024. Srinivasan could not be contacted for a comment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday the Trump administration expects to revoke more student visas in the coming days. Rubio claimed that the protesters threatened and intimidated Jewish students, many of whom could not attend classes.

The Department of Homeland Security launched the CBP Home app on March 10 with a self-deportation reporting feature for those illegally staying in the country. The app gives such individuals the option to “leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return,” it said.

India has become the leading source of international students in the US, surpassing China, with over 3.3 lakh Indian students studying there in 2023. The US issued over 1.4 lakh student visas to Indians in the year, the most in any country.

Besides Columbia University in New York, some of the universities with a large number of Indian students include New York University, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Missouri – Kansas City, and Oklahoma State University. Indian students make up more than a quarter of the over one million foreign students studying in the US.