The first knock at the door came eight days ago on a Friday morning.
Three federal immigration agents appeared at Columbia University apartment and were searching for Ranjani Srinivasan, whom he had recently learned that his student visa had been revoked. Srinivasan, an international student from India, could not open the door.
When the agent reappeared the next night, she was not at home. Srinivasan packed some belongings, left the cat behind with a friend, and jumped on a flight to Canada at Lagardia Airport.
She was gone when the agent returned the third time this past Thursday night and entered her apartment on a judicial warrant.
“The atmosphere seemed very unstable and dangerous,” Srinivasan, 37, said in an interview with the New York Times Friday. “So I just made an easy decision.”
Srinivasan, a Fulbright recipient who received his PhD in Urban Planning, has been caught up in a dragnet of President Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters using federal immigration authority. She is one of the few non-citizens who have recently targeted Colombia by immigration and customs enforcement agencies.
In the week since knocking on that first door, Srinivasan says she had a hard time figuring out why the State Department had revoked her student visa without explaining it, as Colombia led her to withdraw her registration from the university because of her legal status ended.
On Friday, she received several answers while considering her future in Canada.
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a statement characterizing Srinivasan as a terrorist sympathizer, defending violence and accusing her of being “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.” The department did not provide evidence of the allegations.
Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem posted surveillance footage on social media showing Srinivasan hugging her suitcase at LaGuardia as she fled to Canada. Director Noem celebrated Srinivasan's departure as a “self-report.”
“It's a privilege to be granted a visa for live and studying in the United States,” wrote Director Noem about X.
Srinivasan's lawyers vehemently denied the allegations, accusing the Trump administration of revoking its visa for engaging in “protected political speeches,” and said he was denied “a meaningful and legitimate form” to challenge the revocation of the visa.
“Noem's tweets are not only virtually wrong, they are fundamentally non-American,” Naz Ahmed, one of Srinivasan's lawyers, said in a statement, “For at least a week, DHS has made clear its intention to punish her for her speech.
In response to questions, a Department of Homeland Security official said when Srinivasan renewed her visa last year, she did not disclose two court summons related to the protests on the Columbia campus. The department did not say how the summons made her a terrorist sympathizer.
“I'm afraid that even what we all do, like we're shouting to the lowest level of political speech and what we all do, will turn into this dystopian nightmare that calls you a terrorist sympathizer and literally makes you fear your life and safety,” Srinivasan said in an interview Friday.
Srinivasan's current situation can be traced back last year when she was arrested at the entrance to a Columbia campus on the same day that ProPalestinian protesters occupied Hamilton Hall, a university building. She said that she was not part of the break-in, but that after a picnic with a friend, she was back in her apartment that night, walking around barricades with protesters on West 116th Avenue, where police pushed her and arrested her that night.
She was temporarily taken into custody and received two subpoena. One blocked traffic for vehicles and pedestrians, while the other refused to diversify. Her case was quickly dismissed and she had no criminal history, according to her lawyer and court documents. Srinivasan said she had never faced disciplinary action from the university and was in an academic position.
“She was taken with about 100 people after being prevented from getting stuck in the street back to her apartment,” said Nathan Jaffe, one of her lawyers. “The court recognized this when it dismissed her case. Ranjani was just walking to the house.”
Srinivasan said her case was dismissed in May and that she did not disclose the subpoena in her visa renewal form later in the year as she was not convicted.
“The charges were dismissed because I didn't have them, so I marked it as 'no',” she said. “But that could have been my mistake. I would have been happy to disclose it, but the way they asked us was assuming you were certain.”
The State Department has broad discretion to revoke student visas. This is what you do if someone line up or the government discovers a fraud. Convictions and arrests can also lead to withdrawal. The immigration lawyer said it was very unusual as the ice has descended on university campus to find students with recently revoked visas, and agents have rattled many students in Columbia over the past few days.
Greg Chen, an attorney for the American Immigration Bar Association, said:
The target of students by the Trump administration with visas at a university engulfed in cultural fires has opened a new front for the president's attempts to step up deportation and steal pro-Palestinian views. The president canceled a $400 million grant to the university after accusing him of not protecting Jewish students. The attempts to arrest and detain Colombian students have led to a stir between Democrats and civil rights groups.
Jason Hauser, a senior ice official during the Biden administration, said “criminating free speech through radical immigration enforcement is a direct attack on our democracy.”
Last week, Ice arrested Khalil, the green card holder who became the main face of the pro-Palestinian protests in Colombia. Trump welcomed the arrest as “the first of many people in the future.” On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had arrested Lequa Cordia, who was involved in the protests in Colombia. Federal officials said she had overstayed her visa and had been arrested earlier in April in a Colombian protest.
Unlike Khalil, Srinivasan said she is not an activist of the group that organized the demonstrations on campus, or a member of any group.
Srinivasan said she was an architect from India to the US as part of the Fulbright program in 2016 and enrolled in Colombia in 2020.
She said her activities on social media were largely limited to liking or sharing posts highlighting “human rights abuses” during the war in Gaza. And she said she signed several public letters related to the war, including those by architects who sought “liberation of Palestine.”
“I'm amazed by people who are interested,” she said. “I'm kind of like a land, like an absolute land,” she said.
She received an email from the US Consulate in Chennai, India on March 5, indicating that her visa had been revoked. The notification did not provide a reason, but said that “information has been revealed” and that he is not eligible for the visa.
Confusing, she emailed her Columbia office the next day for international students. According to a Times reviewed email, authorities informed her that it will only be effective if she leaves the country and that she can remain in the US to pursue immediate research.
The next morning, on March 7, Srinivasan had called officials from the International Student Office when a federal agent first knocked on the door of an apartment that was off campus but operated by Columbia. Officials told Srinivasan to call security on the campus, but her roommate engaged with the agent from behind the door of the closed apartment.
In an interview, her roommate said that the agent initially identified herself as the “police” and refused to provide her badge number, and that she was standing by the door, not visible through the peep hole, saying that they might become doxxed. The roommate, a fellow Columbian student who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of her safety, said the building's doorman, who is an immigrant, later said he had put three agents in the building because he was scared.
Srinivasan abandoned the apartment that night, so when staff returned the following evening she was not there. Her roommate refused to open the door again, and let them in and recorded the audio of the interaction she shared with the Times.
“We were here yesterday,” one official said he believes he is talking to Srinivasan because his roommate had not identified himself. “We're here today. We're here tonight. Tomorrow. You're probably scared. If so, I'll get it. The reality is that your visa has been revoked. Now we can remove the procedure.”
Officials stressed that he and his colleagues were not trying to break the law, that they left a phone number with the Department of Homeland Security who was entitled to go to the immigration judge and who could call in the event of a “change of heart.”
“This is the easiest and fastest way to do this, as opposed to being in your apartment and we knock on the door every day. “You're a very clever person. Not that – it's worth it.”
The next day, Srinivasan received an email from Colombia and said Homeland Security had warned the university that her visa had been revoked and her legal status within the country had ended. She had to leave the US soon, so according to emails, her registration in Colombia was withdrawn and student housing had to be vacated.
An email signed by the university's international student office said Colombia is asking her to meet with homeland security agents in compliance with legal obligations. The university declined to comment on Srinivasan's case.
On Thursday night, three federal agents returned to Srinivasan's apartment with a search warrant signed by a judge and searched her, according to her roommates and lawyers.
By then, Srinivasan was already in Canada.
Edward Wong Reports of contributions. Alain Delacheriere Contributed research.
