The Donald Trump administration has come down heavily against students who joined pro-Palestine agitations in the US — with many taken into custody or deported in recent weeks. Indian student Ranjani Srinivasan became one of the latest people to be tagged as a ‘terrorist sympathiser’ this month after they opted to leave the country following a visa cancellation. The PhD student from Columbia however insists that they had never participated in the campus protests and was even not in the country for most of that time period.
“I am sympathetic to the (pro-Palestinian) protests that have been going on campus…But, as much as I was following things online, I wasn’t physically there to be part of anything. I wasn’t really in the US till April 22, 2024, because I was doing field work in India. I reached the US — Boston — on April 25 or 26 and was not really on campus for most of the protests,” they told the Indian Express on Friday.
Srinivasan recalled attending a department picnic at a park alongside Columbia University on April 30 — the same day they were picked up by the police for ‘protesting’. The 37-year-old said the extent of their activism had been limited to signing petitions or liking social media posts that “challenged academic repression” and called for the violence in the Middle East to stop.
“I went to the picnic with some cake and cookies and was returning from there when I, along with my colleagues, realised that the whole perimeter was barricaded. There were many – around 200 – New York Police Department officials who were roaming around there. We circled the place for over an hour, and I finally tried to get to my residential place which abuts the university. But then the police picked me up in the melee, even though I was not actively trying to be part of the protest,” they added.
Srinivasan flew out of the US in early March after their visa was abruptly revoked and immigration agents came searching at their university residence. The Trump administration has said it had revoked Srinivasan’s visa for “advocating for violence and terrorism” without specifying any details or citing evidence for the same. A press release currently available on the Homeland Security website also claims that Srinivasan “self-deported using the CBP Home App” and claimed that the Columbia student was involved in activities supporting Hamas.
“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 use the CBP Home app to self deport,” US secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem had claimed while sharing grainy CCTV footage.
Srinivasan however told the Indian Express that they had simply left the country to travel to Canada because their visa was “illegally terminated”. Being disenrolled by Columbia also meant that they no longer had access to housing.
“I was compliant with the rule that you can leave the country within 15 days of visa revocation. But ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) did not seem to know that I had left the country, and they came with a warrant on March 13 to detain me. My lawyers informed ICE that I had left the country ,and they asked for proof. While we were trying to gather proof of leaving the country, the post came out stating that I ‘self-deported’. I did not even know that one can self deport. I just left the country like how we normally leave,” they added.