Indian Student Self-Deports After US Revokes Visa For “Supporting” Hamas

Washington, United States:

An Indian student studying at Columbia University in the US has self-deported herself from the country, days after her student visa was revoked for participating in pro-Palestine protests. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, Ranjani Srinivasan’s visa was revoked on March 5 for “advocating violence and terrorism”.

“Ranjani Srinivasan was involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organisation. On March 5, 2025, the Department of State revoked her visa. The Department of Homeland Security has obtained video footage of her using the Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency app to self-deport on March 11,” it said in a statement.

Self-deporting, or leaving voluntarily before authorities take action, avoids the risk of one being put on a US military aircraft and sent home like the deportees who recently arrived in India.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a video of Ms Srinivasan at the airport and said that anyone “advocating for violence and terrorism should not be in the country”.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and 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 am glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport,” she said in a post on X.

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

Ms Srinivasan was a doctoral student in urban planning at Columbia University. According to the school’s website, she was doing research at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The Indian national has a Bachelor’s Degree from CEPT Univeristy in Ahmedabad and a Master’s Degree from Harvard with Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholarships.

It also mentioned that she has worked for an environmental advocacy nonprofit in Washington on “frontier communities at risk from climate change” and as a researcher for the West Philadelphia Landscape Project (WPLP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The school’s website shows Ms Srinivasan referring to herself with the gender-neutral “they” pronoun.

Columbia University has been the Ground Zero of student protests in support of Palestine amid the raging Israel-Hamas war. Last week, a former Columbia student of Palestinian descent Mahmoud Khalil – who was at the forefront of the pro-Palestinian protests on campus last year – was arrested by the US authorities. While his green card has been revoked, a federal judge has put Mr Khalil’s deportation on hold temporarily.

Another Columbia University student, Leqaa Kordia, was arrested by an immigration official for overstaying her student visa. She was arrested last year for her involvement in pro-Palestine protests in New York.

According to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Justice Department and Homeland Security are investigating whether Columbia was “harbouring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus”.