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SvennoJ on 29 March 2025
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The people the US is trying to deport over their pro-Palestinian views

The Trump administration plans to deport non-citizens who hold pro-Palestinian views or who are perceived to have been critical of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Here is a list of the people we know the US government has targeted:

  • Mahmoud Khalil: Khalil was arrested over pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. He is married to an American citizen and holds a green card.
  • Rumeysa Ozturk: The Turkish student was detained after she co-authored an op-ed in a Tufts University student newspaper.
  • Yunseo Chung: A judge has ordered that the Korean-American student at Columbia University not be detained until her legal challenge against deportation is heard in court.
  • Badar Khan Suri: The Georgetown scholar from India, who holds a valid visa, was arrested over social media posts.
  • Leqaa Kordia: Authorities say Kordia is Palestinian and was arrested near a protest at Columbia University.
  • Ranjani Srinivasan: The Indian citizen and doctoral student at Columbia fled the US when immigration agents searched her university residence.
  • Alireza Doroudi: The Iranian citizen and doctoral student at the University of Alabama was detained by immigration authorities who said he “posed significant national security concerns”.
  • Dr Rasha Alawieh: A kidney transplant specialist from Lebanon was preparing to take up a position with Brown University but was deported earlier this month when trying to re-enter the US.
  • Momodou Taal: The doctoral student at Cornell University is challenging his deportation from the US.


Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts, the US, on March 26


Harvard University dismisses Middle Eastern Studies Centre leadership: Report

The academic leadership of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies have been dismissed following a pressure campaign by the Trump administration over alleged anti-Israel bias.

The development was first reported by the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson and confirmed by The New York Times.

An email sent to affiliates announced Professor Cemal Kafadar, who specialises in Turkish studies, would see out the year before stepping down as director. Associate director, Rosie Bsheer, a historian of the Middle East, was not named in the email but will also vacate her position. Both will remain on staff.

The centre was reported to have been the subject of complaints by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance for anti-Semitic bias against Israel.

Michigan politicians call for Mahmoud Khalil’s release from immigration detention

Michigan’s state secretary and other elected officials in the state, as well as Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, have called on the US Department of Homeland Security to release Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention.

Khalil was detained earlier this month after US immigration officials sought to deport him for his role in pro-Palestinian student protests on Columbia University.

The co-signed letter describes his detention as “an assault on both [Khalil’s] rights and his dignity” and “a threat to anyone who chooses to speak out against injustice here and abroad”.

“Secretary Rubio’s targeting of Mahmoud Khalil is a violation of the letter and spirit of the law,” the letter states.

“It is clear that Khalil is being targeted in connection to his alleged participation in protests against the Israeli government’s collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza, and the ways Columbia University is complicated in the assault on that besieged territory whose population is nearly half children,” it says.

“It is even clearer that Khalil is being targeted because he is a Palestinian American – discrimination based on his nationality.”