90,000 Arab students in US under Trump scanner
Michael Jansen
The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
6 hours ago
Supporters of Mahmoud Khalil walk away from the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, on April 11, 2025 after the immigration court hearing for Khalil. File/Agence France-Presse
A Louisiana immigration judge ruled last Friday in a high-profile case that Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil could be deported for pro-Palestinian activism. He is not only a legal permanent resident but also the husband of a US citizen. His case should serve as a warning to international students that freedom of speech, guaranteed in the first amendment to the US Constitution, is relative and rationed. Khalil’s case is not the only one to generate headlines and protest. Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts University was grabbed by immigration agents while in the street near Boston and transferred to Louisiana where she is awaiting deportation hearings. She criticised in a student newspaper the university’s response to the Gaza war. Iran-born Canadian national Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi, deputy director of Yale University’s Law and Political Economy Project and associate research scholar at Yale Law School, has been fired after being accused of associating with anti-Israel groups.
Cornell University PhD candidate Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of Britain and Gambia, who took part in pro-Palestine protests, fled the US before immigration agents could detain him. While US universities and colleges are the most popular in the world among international students, those applying to and attending these institutions of higher learning should understand that the Trump administration seeks to muzzle anyone who expresses support for Palestine as this is deemed a threat to US national security. Among the 1.1 million international students currently studying on the US are 90,000 Arab students from 21 countries whose thoughts, speech and activities are under investigation by the Trump administration. Although the number of students affected is small, the circle of intimidation is wide and widening.
On January 30th, Donald Trump signed an executive order to “combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and streets” following Israel’s war on Gaza mounted after the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. An estimated 1,000 foreign students at more than 80 universities have been deported or detained ahead of deportation. These students have had their studies and academic research disrupted.
https://www.gulftoday.ae/opinion/2025/04/13/90000-arab-students-in-us-under-trump-scanner
