ICE on Campus
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Why are immigration arrests happening at universities?
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams. This is The Daily. Today, the story of three Columbia students targeted for deportation by the Trump administration and why immigration arrests are happening at universities across the country. My colleague Hamed Aliaziz on what these cases reveal about the latest immigration crackdown and this administration's views on free speech. It's Monday, March 31st. Hamed, it feels like you can't go more than a few days without hearing about another college campus or another college student that has been targeted by immigration officials. And one thing that seems to have been really making the rounds the last week is this video of a student at Tufts getting detained on the street by immigration agents.
And it's kind of a shocking video. And her case feels like this larger pattern that we've been seeing recently with the targeting of students. And I want to talk to you about what is happening here and what your understanding is of this moment that we are in.
What is the Trump administration's stance on international students?
Yeah, definitely. We saw at the beginning of the Trump administration a real focus on cracking down and arresting undocumented immigrants in the country, particularly those with criminal histories. And at the same time, making a note that if you're undocumented in this country, we're going to come find you, we're going to come get you, and we're going to remove you from America. But what's happening now is targeting of people who were legally in the country. They were here with student visas, in some cases with green cards. The Trump administration is looking to target individuals that they believe are spreading messages that they disagree with and they believe that are counter to the foreign policy interests of the United States.
And this all actually starts with a talk by President Trump during his campaign. During that time, he was watching these protests at Columbia.
When I'm president, we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals.
who said that if there were any international students involved, their visas should be revoked and they should be removed from the United States.
If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You'll be out of that school.
And when he comes into office, quickly in those first few days where there's a dizzying number of executive orders, he deputizes the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to create a task force combating anti-Semitism and targeting college campuses as places of focus. And we weren't clear how it was all going to play out. And in recent weeks, we've seen the Trump administration move start to use those ideas to target students on college campuses. And I've been covering three of those cases involving students at Columbia that, taken together, I think paint a clearer picture of what the Trump administration is up to.
Who is Mahmoud Khalil and why was he arrested?
I have to assume that one of those cases is one of the first cases that we saw come out of all of this, the case of Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia student who was arrested on campus housing in early March.
Definitely, his case was a massive news story when it first happened in early March. And people were trying to figure out why he was picked up. We learned from sources that actually Secretary of State Rubio had issued a memo designating two people as deportable because of their protest activity. And one of those people was Mahmoud Khalil. a very visible protester on Columbia's campus. You're going to be under arrest. So turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around, turn around. He was arrested on March 8th at his Columbia University apartment complex. Okay, okay, he's not resisting. He's giving me his phone, okay?
Can green card holders be detained by ICE?
His wife actually videotaped the arrest. And in the video, you can see the plainclothes officers telling Mr. Khalil that he's going to be arrested, that they're going to be taking him away.
At the same time, Mr. Khalil is telling his wife... Just call his lawyer.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why are immigration arrests happening at universities?
0:01–1:19
2
What is the Trump administration's stance on international students?
1:19–3:25
3
Who is Mahmoud Khalil and why was he arrested?
3:25–4:23
4
Can green card holders be detained by ICE?
4:23–5:57
5
What legal grounds are used to detain international students?
5:57–8:29
6
How did Ranjani Srinivasan's visa status change?
8:29–11:29
7
What is the concept of self-deportation?
11:29–26:15
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Daily
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