How student Ranjani Srinivasan dodged immigration agents twice before fleeing US
For Indian student Ranjani Srinivasan, who self-deported from the US last week, the final days before leaving for Canada were marked by paranoia, uncertainty and fear after her fellow Columbia University student, Mahomud Khalil, was detained, reported The New York Times.
In fact, Ranjani got a knock at her door from federal immigration agents, hours before Khalil, a Palestinian activist, was picked up from the campus. She was not present at her apartment. However, she packed her belongings on returning to the campus and hurriedly left for New York’s LaGuardia Airport before getting on a flight to Canada.
Recalling the incident, Ranjani said that she was left with no option because of a “volatile and dangerous” atmosphere.
“I’m fearful that even the most low-level political speech or just doing what we all do – like shout into the abyss that is social media – can turn into this dystopian nightmare where somebody is calling you a terrorist sympathiser and making you, literally, fear for your life and your safety,” Ranjani told The New York Times.
It all started for Ranjani the night before she left her college and the US in haste. She heard a loud thud. At her door, there were three federal immigration agents. Ranjani, whose student visa was revoked on March 5 for allegedly “advocating for violence and terrorism”, didn’t answer the door.
However, when the federal agents turned up at her doorsteps for the second day in a row, Ranjani said that she had to make “a quick decision”.
The 37-year-old’s “quick decision” to leave – and her fear of meeting the same fate as Khalil – proved to be justified when federal agents showed up at her door again, this time with a warrant.
Days after she left for Canada and used the CBP Home App to self-deport on March 11, the US Secretary of Homeland Security confirmed the development, calling it a good riddance.
“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 sympathisers use the CBP Home App to self-deport,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement.
Srinivasan, a doctoral fellow, claimed that her visa was revoked without any valid reason, prompting her university to cancel her enrolment.
Ranjani left the US as the Donald Trump administration intensified its crackdown on foreigners who participated in mass pro-Palestine protests on the Columbia University campus last year over Israel’s role in the Gaza war in a bid “to end antisemitism in this country”.
