Indian Student Self-Deports After US Revokes Visa For “Supporting” Hamas

An Indian student enrolled at Columbia University in the US has voluntarily left the country shortly after their student visa was canceled due to involvement in pro-Palestine demonstrations. As per the US Department of Homeland Security, Ranjani Srinivasan’s visa was canceled on March 5 due to “promoting violence and terrorism.”

“Ranjani Srinivasan was involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organisation. On March 5, 2025, the Department of State revoked her visa . The Department of Homeland Security has obtained video footage of her using the Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency app to self-deport on March 11,” it said in a statement.

Self-deporting, or opting to leave voluntarily before officials intervene, eliminates the chance of being placed on a US military plane and sent back, as happened to the deportees who recently arrived in India. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a video of Srinivasan at the airport and stated that anyone “supporting violence and terrorism should not remain in the country.”

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence and terrorism, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. I am glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport,” she said in a post on X.

Srinivasan is a PhD candidate in urban planning at Columbia University. As stated on the school’s website, Srinivasan uses the gender-neutral pronoun “they” to refer to themselves.

They were conducting research at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. The Indian citizen holds a Bachelor’s Degree from CEPT University in Ahmedabad and a Master’s Degree from Harvard, awarded with Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholarships. It was also noted that they have been employed by an environmental advocacy nonprofit in Washington focusing on “frontier communities endangered by climate change” and served as a researcher for the West Philadelphia Landscape Project (WPLP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Columbia University has served as the center of student demonstrations advocating for Palestine during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Last week, US authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student of Palestinian heritage who played a leading role in last year’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. Although Mr. Khalil’s green card has been canceled, a federal judge has temporarily paused his deportation.

Another student from Columbia University, Leqaa Kordia, was apprehended by an immigration officer for exceeding the duration of her student visa. Last year, she was taken into custody for her participation in pro-Palestine demonstrations in New York.