(NewsNation) — A 21-year-old Columbia University student who moved to the United States with her family at age 7 is among the latest people to claim she was targeted for deportation after participating in campus pro-Palestinian protests.
Attorneys for Yunseo Chung filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and other top officials alleging government overreach for seeking Chung’s deportation. The complaint comes after Trump said the arrest of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil would be the “first of many to come.”
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to NewsNation’s request for comment on cases involving those claiming to be targeted, but has issued statements at the time students were taken into custody by federal agents.
Yunseo Chung
Chung’s attorneys argue federal government officials “began a series of unlawful efforts to arrest, detain and remove” her from the country because of her protected speech. On March 10, a federal law enforcement official told Chung her legal permanent resident status had been revoked.
On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked immigration officials’ attempt to deport Chung.
“After the constant dread in the back of my mind the past few weeks, this decision feels like a million pounds off my chest,” Chung said in a statement released by her attorneys. “I feel like I could fly.”
“Like many thousands of students nationwide, Yunseo raised her voice against what is happening in Gaza and in support of fellow students facing unfair discipline,” Naz Ahmad, a co-director of CLEAR, told The New York Times. “It can’t be the case that a straight-A student who has lived here most of her life can be whisked away and potentially deported, all because she dares to speak up.”
Ranjani Srinivasan
Srinivasan, a 37-year-old Columbia graduate student, was informed by federal officials on March 5 that her student visa had been revoked. The New York Times reported that Srinivasan, an international student from India, learned Columbia withdrew her enrollment in the school because her legal status had been terminated.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem referred to Srinivasan as a “terrorist sympathizer” and said she advocated for violence and terrorism.
Noem’s post on X included footage of Srinivasan at LaGuardia Airport stating Srinivasan used the CBP Home app to self-deport. Srinivasan elected to leave the country and escape to Canada, she wrote in a social media post.
DHS claims Srinivasan was “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.” According to the complaint filed by Chung’s attorneys, Srinivasan was among students arrested at a campus protest.
In a lengthy statement posted to the Student Workers of Columbia Instagram account, Srinivasan wrote that ICE agents showed up at her residence and that her roommate recognized the door knock was from law enforcement.
She wrote that officers were not allowed entry and refused to show identification. On March 8, she wrote that agents again showed up at her door “the same day that Mahmoud (Khalil) was (sic) disappeared by ICE.”
Srinivasan wrote that after leaving the U.S. for Canada, her home was raided by ICE on March 13 before “she was put on blast by a DHS tweet” the next day. She said the agency falsely reported that she had self-deported.
She acknowledged in the statement that she attended a handful of “low-level” protests but otherwise had little contact with campus events.
“So there is no explanation why I was targeted,” she wrote. “With the rapidly escalating situation, the criminalization of free speech and eminent travel bans, what has happened to me can happen to you.”
Leqaa Kordia
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested this month after Homeland Security Investigations agents said her visa had expired in 2022. DHS officials said that Kordia was reportedly arrested last year for her involvement in “pro-Hamas” protests at Columbia University.
Kordia was detained by the Newark Field Office after officials said that her student visa was terminated for a lack of attendance at Columbia, DHS said in a news release.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa and live and study in the United States of America,” Noem said. “When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”
Badar Khan Suri
Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University post-doctoral research fellow, was arrested by ICE agents outside his Virginia home.
DHS assistant director Tricia McLaughlin posted on her X account that Khan Suri, an Indian national, was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
She wrote Khan Suri has “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
McLaughlin said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined Khan Suri’s activities and presence in the United States “rendered him deportable” under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Georgetown officials are not aware of any illegal activity that Khan Suri was engaged in and has not received any reason for Khan Suri being detained, a spokesperson said.
Khan Suri’s attorney, Hassan Ahmad, told NewsNation that Khan Suri was sent from Virginia to Louisiana and then to Prairieville, Texas. He is scheduled to appear in immigration court there on May 6.
A petition filed by Ahmad stated Khan Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, Politico reported.
Ahmad argued Khan Suri is being detained because his wife, a U.S. citizen, is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a former advisor to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader whom Israel assassinated in 2024.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot deport Khan Suri. Ahmad told NewsNation that he is fighting for his client’s release.
“Even the officers who arrested him and handcuffed him and shackled him told him, ‘We know you didn’t do anything wrong,'” Ahmad said. “This is the country we’ve become. Arresting people and jailing them for what someone thought was said.”
Momodou Taal
Momodou Taal, a Cornell University doctoral student in Africana studies, came to the United States on a student visa and became active in protesting U.S. foreign policy, particularly its financial support for Israel, according to his complaint suing Trump and Noem.
The complaint said Taal faced disciplinary action from the university and was temporarily suspended in 2024. However, Cornell did not impose sanctions that affected his immigration status. He was permitted to attend classes remotely and was eventually granted full access to campus this spring, the complaint said.
However, as Taal became more known, groups and organizations opposed to Palestinian rights called on ICE to target, arrest and deport Taal. On March 15, Taal and two others filed a complaint seeking a temporary restraining order seeking an injunction against Trump’s executive orders involving campus protests.
“We cannot continue to allow international students, faculty, immigrants and people with conscience to live in perpetual fear with the threat of illegal deportation hanging over our heads,” Taal wrote on social media. “What Trump is doing is a threat to millions in the U.S. and worldwide.”
In response to the filing, two undercover police officers showed up at the parking lot of Taal’s residence, the complaint states. Taal wrote that he expects his legal fight to be a “long, drawn-out battle” but expects to emerge victorious.
Attorneys from the Department of Justice have since emailed Taal’s attorney, Eric Lee, indicating that ICE intended to arrest and detain Taal and encouraged him to surrender to HSI, according to the complaint. In a letter filed with the court this week, Taal’s attorneys claim that their client is part of a larger group of students, including Khalil, who are being targeted for their involvement in student protests.
“Momodou Taal is a test case that will determine whether the government will come to your house and grab you and put you in jail for the things you say criticizing the United States government,” Lee told reporters on Tuesday following a court hearing, according to NewsNation affiliate WSYR.
Rumseysa Ozturk
Ozturk, a Turkish national and doctoral candidate in the Tufts University graduate school of arts and sciences in Boston, was arrested Tuesday evening and taken into federal custody outside of her off-campus apartment in suburban Sommerville.
Ozturk was in the United States on a student visa and was heading out to meet friends to break her Ramadan fast Tuesday night when she was detained by DHS agents, her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai said in a statement issued by her firm.
Khanbabai said that she has been unable to reach Ozturk and is currently unaware of her whereabouts. No criminal charges have been filed against her client, the attorney said. In an email sent to students, faculty and staff, Tufts President Sunil Kumar wrote that school administrators had been told that Ozturk’s student visa had been terminated.
He said school officials were working to find out whether that was actually the case.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday night that Ozturk not be moved out of Massachusetts without advance written notice from the government to the court. The New York Times reported that Ozturk was among the authors of an opinion essay that was published last year in the Tufts student newspaper.
The essay criticized university officials for their response to the demands that the university “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest itself from companies with ties to Israel.
In a social media post, McLaughlin, the assistant DHS director, wrote that DHS and ICE investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.
“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” McLaughlin wrote on X. “Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”
A home security camera video shows several plain clothes agents approaching Ozturk and taking the student’s backpack off of her. The video shows the agents pulling face masks over their faces while they take her into custody.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the arrest “an attack on our Constitution and basic freedoms.”
“This arrest is the latest in an alarming pattern to stifle civil liberties. The Trump administration is targeting students with legal status and ripping people out of their communities without due process,” Warren said, adding, “We will push back.”