The Trump administration, as part of its ongoing crackdown on universities across the USA, has asked educational institutes including colleges and universities to make a list of names and nationalities of students who have been involved in pro-Palestine protests.

As one of the largest group of international students in the USA, students from India may also make it to the list if they were involved in the protests, and subsequently face deportation from the ‘land of the free’.

Days ago, a Turkish doctoral student at the Turfs University was arrested and her visa was revoked for her alleged ‘ties with Hamas’, in a similar crackdown effort.

This is an ongoing effort by the Trump administration targeting educational institutions where it is believed that ‘pro-Palestine’ activism is on the rise.

The criticism of US foreign policy or support for ‘Anti-American’ thoughts is becoming grounds for arrests, visa revocations, and detentions.

Critics view these measures as politically motivated suppression, disproportionately affecting academics from South Asia and the Middle East. 

In one such case, Indian researcher Badar Khan Suri became the second Indian to face deportation over alleged involvement in the pro-Palestinian causes that swept the US campuses.

Later, a judge stayed his deportation.

Another Indian student who participated in pro-Palestine protests in the US has “self-deported” herself after her student visa was revoked, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced. 

The Department said that Ranjani Srinivasan “was involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization” and left the US on March 11 after her student visa was revoked by the State Department.

A citizen of India, she was a doctoral student in urban planning at Columbia University, the Ground Zero of student protests in support of Palestine and against Israel over Gaza that swept the US last year.

The university saw the violent takeover of a campus building, and scores of students were arrested when the university called in the police to quell the protests.

Noem said that it was “a privilege” to study in the US, but “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 sympathisers use the CBP Home app to self-deport", Noem said.

Srinivasan was doing research at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

According to the school, she has a bachelor’s degree from CEPT University in Ahmedabad and got her master’s degree from Harvard with Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholarships.

President Trump’s administration has trained its sights on the Ivy League university, accusing it of failing to stem the protests that it said veered into anti-Semitism and threatened Jewish students and faculty.

It has cut off $400 million in federal funds to the university.