Students Targeted by ICE for Political Speech

Who is in this collection

• Mahmoud Khalil · Columbia green card holder, arrested without warrant

  Palestinian lawful permanent resident and Columbia graduate student arrested March 8, 2025, from his Manhattan apartment by ICE agents who entered without a judicial warrant (the government later admitted there was no warrant). ACLU…

• South Louisiana ICE Processing Center

  Located in Basile, Louisiana. Operated by GEO Group (for-profit). Where Rumeysa Ozturk was detained, 1,600 miles from Tufts. Louisiana holds 7,000+ detainees — 98% in for-profit prisons. In September 2025, DHS expanded detention to Angola…

• Columbia University

  Two Columbia students targeted: Mahmoud Khalil (arrested without warrant, detained 104 days) and Mohsen Mahdawi (arrested at citizenship interview). On February 5, 2026, NYPD made 12 arrests outside Columbia during anti-ICE protests.

• Tufts University

  PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was arrested by six masked agents for co-authoring a student newspaper op-ed. The university condemned the arrest. The incident sparked protests at universities across the country.

• Rumeysa Ozturk · Tufts PhD student, arrested by masked agents

  Turkish PhD student at Tufts studying child development. Arrested March 25, 2025, by six masked plainclothes DHS agents in Somerville, Massachusetts, after her F-1 visa was revoked. The apparent basis: co-authoring a March 2024 op-ed in…

• Mohsen Mahdawi · Columbia student, arrested at citizenship interview

  A ten-year legal U.S. resident, Columbia student, and Palestinian refugee camp-born activist. ICE agents arrested him at his U.S. citizenship interview — he was literally at his appointment to become a citizen. The Trump administration…

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