Federal officials posted surveillance footage of a lady hurrying to catch a flight at LaGuardia Airport, claiming that a pro-Palestinian college student who was accused after last year’s rallies in New York City had “self-deported” to Canada.
The student’s hasty departure coincides with federal authorities debating whether to charge those involved in last year’s sit-ins and encampments, which started at Columbia University but extended throughout the country, with terrorism.
“Getting a visa to live and study in the United States of America is an honor. “That privilege should be taken away and you should not be in this country when you support violence and terrorism,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on social media on Friday. “I am happy to see one of the terrorist sympathizers from Columbia University self-deport using the CBP Home app.”
Noem’s unconventional choice to share the footage on social media is indicative of the amount of focus Trump and his aides have placed on the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have sprung up after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s ensuing reprisal.
In an operation that prompted the White House to request real-time information, ICE officers arrested one of the student protest leaders last weekend and took another protester into custody on Thursday. Additionally, federal authorities have ordered that Columbia University improve its protection of Jewish students and have slashed $400 million in research grants to the university.
Although they have not provided any proof, Trump administration authorities have charged some Columbia students with having Hamas affiliations or sympathies with terrorism. Trump has publicly praised ICE’s decision to detain Mahmoud Khalil, the leader of the student demonstration.
The woman in Noem’s X post was identified by Homeland Security officials as Ranjani Srinivasan, who claimed to be an Indian national and citizen who was captured on camera on March 11 rushing to board an Air Canada trip to Toronto at LaGuardia airport in New York. Other footage and documents, according to officials, verified that she had departed the country.
According to DHS officials, Srinivasan most recently arrived in the United States on a valid F-1 non-immigrant student visa on January 19, 2025, while enrolled in Columbia University’s Urban Planning doctoral program and working as a teaching fellow at Barnard College. She received two court summonses relating to the demonstration, according to officials; the status of those charges was not immediately known on Friday.
She neglected to mention the convictions on her most recent visa application, according to federal investigators, and the State Department revoked her visa on March 5.
Meanwhile, protests in New York City have grown in number since the 30-year-old activist Khalil was arrested over the weekend. On Thursday, Trump Tower was briefly occupied. To put a stop to the sit-in, police arrested about 100 demonstrators.
To stop the fear of deportation and Khalil’s ICE detention, a number of civil rights organizations are suing. Columbia University, which has begun taking action to reprimand some of the student demonstrators, is being sued by other organizations.
throughout the contentious Columbia student encampment protests, Khalil served as a lead negotiator who called for the university to sever all connections with Israel throughout the conflict, including financial investments and student exchange programs.
Leqaa Kordia, a pro-Palestinian student activist, was also arrested by federal authorities on Friday for exceeding her student visa limit. According to officials, Kordia, a West Bank Palestinian, had her visa revoked in January 2022 for failing to attend university and had previously been jailed for her involvement in protests the previous year.
Plainclothes agents: ‘We don’t give our names’
A 2-minute video showing plainclothes immigration officers holding Khalil in the lobby of his university-owned building over a week ago was made public by the American Civil Liberties Union late Friday afternoon.
The agents’ faces are blurred in the edited video as Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, records them telling him to turn around and cuff him. Agents inform Khalil that he is under arrest and instruct him to stop struggling. Khalil is not protesting, according to Abdalla, who is eight months along in her pregnancy with their first child.
An agent informs Khalil that he must accompany them.
“Yes, I will accompany you,” Khalil replies coolly. “Do not be concerned.”
He nods to Abdalla while continuing to record as they start to snatch Khalil away. “It is okay, Habibi,” he says. He instructs her to give his lawyer, Amy Greer, a call.
Agents put him in an unmarked car outside, and Abdalla follows, her voice trembling. Speaking to Greer, Abdalla requests the names of the agents.
One of the agents answers, “We do not give our names.” Abdalla is informed by an agent that Khalil is being brought to the ICE office located in lower Manhattan at 26 Federal Plaza. Which agency is detaining Khalil, she inquires? Abdalla attempts to pursue them, but they do not reply.
She describes them as “literally running away from me.”
Greer stated in a declaration that she was informed by one agent that he has an administrative warrant. Agents never created one, according to Greer. Greer reported that instead, they hung up.