Rights group urges US to stop deporting pro-Palestine student activists – JURIST
Human Rights Watch urged the US government Thursday to end arrests and deportations of student activists who advocate for Palestine in an effort to crack down on noncitizen students.
Human Rights Watch reported that the Department of Homeland Security has revoked hundreds of student visas. Some students, whose visas have been revoked, have chosen to voluntarily deport.
“The arrests and deportations of noncitizen students and scholars for expressing their political views are creating a climate of fear on campuses across the country,” said John Raphling, associate US program director at Human Rights Watch.
A Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, Rumeysa Ozturk, was arrested on a Boston street on March 25, 2025. Department of Homeland Security officials said she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas” after writing an op-ed in her student newspaper calling on the university to acknowledge the Palestine genocide and divest investment connected to Israel. Similar arrests happened at Columbia University against graduate Mahmoud Khalil and undergraduate Yunseo Chung, both being lawful permanent residents in the US but facing potential deportation.
Relatedly on April 2, an anonymous Temple University student has chosen to voluntarily deport, and the allegations against the student are unknown at this time. The university has ensured “access to legal counsel and communication with officials from their home country.” Temple University has also reportedly provided emotional and academic support to the student.
These are the latest arrests and deportations in connection with Trump’s executive orders, which called for an inventory of all cases against higher education institutions “arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism,” so that appropriate action may be taken.
US President Donald Trump posted on X(formerly Twitter): “If you support terrorism, including slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply.”
