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American Rendition: Journey To A Louisiana Cell

April 16, 2025 Hanna Allam, Consortium News. , , , ,
With a line of cars waiting behind them at the train station, the two women hugged tightly as they said goodbye at the end of a spring break that hadn’t turned out to be the relaxing vacation they’d imagined. Their girls trip had transformed into endless conversations about security precautions as one of the friends, 30-year-old Turkish national Rümeysa Öztürk, grew increasingly worried she would become a target of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign. Öztürk, a former Fulbright scholar in a doctoral program at Tufts University, was stunned to find out in early March that she had been targeted by a pro-Israel group that highlighted an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing the school’s response to the war in Gaza.

Protesters Denounce ICE ‘Abduction’ Of Mohsen Mahdawi

April 16, 2025 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
On April 14, Palestinian Columbia University student and leading pro-Palestine activist Mohsen Mahdawi was detained by immigration agents as he attended an interview as part of his application for US citizenship in Colchester, Vermont. Mahdawi is the second Palestinian Columbia University student activist to be kidnapped by immigration authorities, after Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest which has earned international attention as demands for his release grow. With Mahdawi’s detention, pro-Palestine groups have renewed calls to end Trump’s attacks on students and free speech.

New Orleans Rallies For Mahmoud Khalil Outside ICE Field Office

April 13, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , , , ,
New Orleans, LA – Around 60 people gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in New Orleans to protest the illegal detention of Mahmoud Khalil. Attendees rallied around speakers and chanted as a judge – hours away in rural Jena, Louisiana – would decide if Khalil could be deported for his activism for Palestine. Speaking for the Palestinian Youth Movement, Majdi Jaber said, “This ICE office that we’re outside right now directs operations in all of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. Every day for the last month, these people have chosen to do nothing about Mahmoud’s incarceration.”

Shuttering Of Department Of Homeland Security Oversight Arm Freezes Cases

April 9, 2025 J. David McSwane and Hannah Allam, Pro Publica. , , , ,
On Feb. 10, more than a dozen Department of Homeland Security officials joined a video conference to discuss an obscure, sparsely funded program overseen by its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The office, charged with investigating when the national security agency is accused of violating the rights of both immigrants and U.S. citizens, had found itself in the crosshairs of Elon Musk’s secretive Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. It began as a typical briefing, with Homeland Security officials explaining to DOGE a program many describe as a win-win.

A Letter To Columbia

April 7, 2025 Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Daily Spectator. , , , , , ,
To Columbia—an institution that laid the groundwork for my abduction—and to its student body, who must not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression, Since my abduction on March 8, the intimidation and kidnapping of international students who stand for Palestine has only accelerated. On March 9, Yunseo Chung had to file a lawsuit and eventually seek a court order barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining her for her protest activity. On March 11, Ranjani Srinivasan chose to cross the border to Canada upon the belief that this university was ready to hand her over to ICE.

Immigrant Rights Activists Fight Attacks On The Palestine Movement

April 2, 2025 Sam Carliner, Mondoweiss. , , , ,
While political prisoner and Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil remains in ICE detention in Louisiana, his lawyers are fighting for his freedom in New Jersey. On Friday, March 28 they were in Newark to argue for Khalil’s upcoming immigration hearing to take place in New Jersey, rather than Louisiana where a judge is more likely to go along with the Trump administration’s political persecution of Khalil. While Khalil’s legal team advocated for him in the district courthouse, hundreds of supporters rallied outside chanting, “We want justice, you say how? Release Mahmoud right now!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!”

Columbia Students Fight Back Against Deportation Threats

April 1, 2025 Tamara Turki, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
Hundreds of Columbia students gathered frantically on Tuesday, March 25 in a cathedral near campus for an emergency union meeting, debating how to respond against what they described as the university administration’s “concessions to fascism.” The uproar ignited on March 9, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate and student activist Mahmoud Khalil at his home without a judicial warrant. Federal authorities claimed to revoke Khalil’s green card from his involvement in pro-Palestine campus protests since Israel’s war on Gaza.

Momodou Taal, Who Sued Trump, Voluntarily Leaves The Country

April 1, 2025 Benjamin Leynse, Cornell Sun. , , , , ,
Momodou Taal, a pro-Palestinian activist and international Ph.D student, announced his decision to leave the country on Monday — ending a weeks-long struggle with the federal government that began when he sued the Trump administration. Soon after Taal announced his decision on X and Instagram, his lawyers withdrew his lawsuit in federal court. Taal first made national news when he, alongside Sriram Parasurama, a Ph.D. student in plant sciences, and Prof. Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, literatures in English, sued the Trump administration for allegedly violating their First and Fifth Amendment rights.

Detroit Protest At ICE Slams Deportations

March 31, 2025 Cole Hamilton, Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Detroit, MI – 50 protesters gathered at the Detroit ICE headquarters, March 29, in response to Trump’s racist attacks on immigrants and to demand Detroit be declared a sanctuary city. Over the past weeks, several families in the city, including victims of the flooding in the Southwest neighborhood, have been turned over to ICE by the Detroit Police Department. Opening the rally, Kassandra Rodriguez of Detroit Comité de Acción Comunitaria spoke on the need to end all deportations, saying, “As a second generation Latina, this fight hits very close to home. I have seen the direct harm ICE causes to our community.

Tufts Student Targeted By DHS Wrote Suspiciously Pro-Humanity Op-Ed

March 29, 2025 Ari Paul, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , , , ,
The journalism world has been reeling from news that a BBC correspondent was deported from Turkey, after he was “covering the antigovernment protests in the country” and was “detained and labeled ‘a threat to public order’” (New York Times, 3/27/25). Turkey has an abysmal reputation for press freedom (CPJ, 2/13/24; European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, 10/5/23), placing 158th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders index, so as distressing as this news is, it’s in character for a country many think of as illiberal and authoritarian (Guardian, 6/9/13; HRW, 1/29/15). Journalists have been arrested in the latest unrest in Turkey (AP, 3/24/25).

Thousands Protest ICE Abduction Of Tufts Student

March 28, 2025 Julia Conley, Common Dreams. , , , , , ,
As reports surfaced Wednesday that Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University Ph.D. student who was abducted by immigration agents off a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, had been taken to a detention center in Louisiana, thousands of people assembled in the Boston-area city to demand Ozturk's release. Ozturk was transferred to the South Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center despite a court order barring immigration officials from moving her out-of-state without prior notice, and her lawyers shared a statement at Powder House Park saying they hadn't been notified about the Turkish student's exact whereabouts. They also said her F-1 student visa had been terminated.

Three Ways To Support Detained Farmworker Organizer ‘Lelo’ Juarez

March 28, 2025 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. , , ,
Longtime farmworker organizer Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this week in what many believe to be retaliation for his organizing. Juarez was pulled over while driving his wife to work. ICE agents shattered Juarez’s window and dragged him out of the vehicle for exercising his right to remain silent, his brother said. Juarez helped form Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farmworker union that emerged out of a 2013 work stoppage by berry workers in Washington state. He himself began working as a berry picker at 14, and has fought for the rights of farmworkers since, advocates say.

Aurora, Colorado Rally Demands Freedom For Jeanette Vizguerra

March 28, 2025 Nels Pine, Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Aurora, CO – On the evening of Monday March 24, around 300 community members rallied in front of the GEO Group ICE Processing Center in Aurora, Colorado for a vigil protesting the unjust detention of community organizer Jeanette Vizguerra. It marked one week since Jeanette was abducted by ICE from her place of work without warning. Vizguerra joined the rally over a phone call from within the detention center, and had her words translated by her daughter Luna Baez. She thanked the people for their presence in the fight and said, “I want everyone here to grow, for more people to show up every single Monday and keep in mind that there are other people in here, and that they have the same needs and wants at the end of the day.

What We Know About The Tufts University Student Kidnapped By ICE

March 27, 2025 Alysha Palumbo, NBC Boston. , , , , ,
A Tufts University student is being held at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, and there are growing questions about how she was taken into custody and the timeline of sending her out of state. One major issue is whether federal authorities defied the court order to keep Rumeysa Ozturk in Massachusetts, as it was issued just hours after her arrest Tuesday night. Video shows Ozturk, a Tufts University PhD student from Turkey, screaming as plain-clothes agents surrounded her and grabbed her on a Somerville sidewalk just off campus before taking her away.

Letter From A Columbia PhD Candidate, After Fleeing The United States

March 24, 2025 Ranjani Srinivasan, Counter Punch. , , , ,
My name is Ranjani Srinivasan. I was a 5th year PhD student at the Department of Urban Planning, GSAPP. I was also a TA in the Urban Studies Department at Barnard College. Some of you might have heard about my case. For those who haven’t, I would like to share the details. On Wednesday night (March 5), my visa was revoked by the Department of State. While I was examining the email on Thursday morning (March 6), I received a phone survey from a private number claiming to be a third party hired by CU to administer a student opinion survey on campus conditions.
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