US: Another Pro-Palestinian Protester Arrested from Columbia University

By Staff, Agencies

The Department of Homeland Security [DHS] has announced the arrest of a second student involved in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, as part of a broader crackdown on student activists.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agents detained Leqaa Korda, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank, for allegedly overstaying her visa.

Her arrest follows that of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder, who was taken into custody earlier last weekend.

DHS stated that Korda had been arrested in 2024 in connection with her participation in similar protests.

DHS also shared footage of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian doctoral student at Columbia, leaving the country on Tuesday.

According to DHS, Srinivasan’s student visa was revoked by the State Department last week after she was accused of supporting Hamas.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has labeled pro-Palestinian students at Columbia as “terrorist sympathizers” and accused them of advocating “violence and terrorism.”

Federal agents also conducted searches of two Columbia University student residences on Thursday night.

"We had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in two university residences tonight," Columbia President Katrina Armstrong confirmed in a statement.

The latest arrests and deportations come as part of the US President Donald Trump administration’s intensified crackdown on what it describes as individuals espousing Hamas-aligned views.

Trump previously praised the arrest of Khalil, vowing it would be the “first of many to come.”

Later, the Trump administration announced that it had canceled grants and contracts worth approximately $400 million allocated to Columbia University.

Trump’s remarks signaled a hardline stance against pro-Palestinian activism on US campuses, criminalizing student advocacy work.

Following Khalil's arrest, Trump referred to him as a “radical foreign pro-Hamas student” and made clear his administration’s zero-tolerance policy for pro-Palestinian demonstrations at American universities.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” Trump wrote in a post on Social Truth.

Trump's comments have drawn criticism from legal experts and civil rights activists, who questioned the legality of publicly accusing individuals of crimes without due process.