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Why did Trump administration revoke visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, Indian student at Columbia University?
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and Columbia University student, self-deported after her visa was revoked amid allegations of advocating for Hamas.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at United State's Columbia University, has self-deported, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The department has reportedly released a video of Ranjani Srinivasan at what appears to be an airport as she hurried down a jetway with her bags. She left on Tuesday, The Washington Times reported, citing the Department of Homeland Security.
The State Department had revoked her visa last week.
The US Justice Department is also investigating whether Columbia University concealed “illegal aliens” on its campus, one of its top officials said on Friday, as the Trump administration intensified its campaign to deport foreigners who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school last year, news agency Associated Press reported.
Agents with the Department of Homeland Security searched two university residences with a warrant on Thursday evening. No one was arrested and it was unclear whom the authorities were searching for, but by Friday afternoon, US officials had announced developments related to two people they had pursued in connection with the demonstrations, it added.
Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia doctoral student from India whose visa was revoked by the Trump administration, fled the US on an airliner. And a Palestinian woman who had been arrested during the protests at the university last April was arrested by federal immigration authorities in Newark, New Jersey, on charges that she overstayed an expired visa.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking at the Justice Department, said it was all part of the president's “mission to end antisemitism in this country”.
Columbia University has come under immense pressure from the Trump administration in recent weeks, with the US government cancelling USD 400 million in federal grants and contracts to the school, much of it for medical research, as punishment for not cracking down harder on students and faculty who criticised Israel's military action in Gaza during large protests last spring.
President Donald Trump and other officials have accused the protesters as being "pro-Hamas", referring to the militant group that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Columbia University's campus has been in crisis since the arrest on Saturday of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead last spring's protests.
Why was Ranjani Srinivasan's visa revoked?
On Friday, the Trump administration said it had revoked the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan for "advocating for violence and terrorism". Srinivasan opted to “self-deport” on Tuesday, the department said. Officials did not say what evidence they had that Srinivasan had advocated violence.
According to a news release, Ranjani Srinivasan entered the United States on an F-1 visa and was “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organisation”.
“On March 5, 2025, the Department of State revoked her visa," the news release read. “The Department of Homeland Security has obtained video footage of her using the CBP Home App to self-deport on March 11.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted a video on X on Friday that appears to show Srinivasan pulling a suitcase at LaGuardia Airport.
Watch the video here:
The DHS launched the CBP Home app on Monday, according to a news release sent out the same day. The app hosts a self-deportation feature that allows undocumented immigrants to declare their intent to leave the United States.
Another protester arrested
The woman who was arrested in Newark, Leqaa Kordia, was charged with failing to leave the US after her visa expired. Columbia said it had no record of Kordia ever being a student there, or being arrested on the campus. However, there were numerous protests and arrests in the streets outside of the university at the same time.
