Foreign Students and Scholars Detained Over Campus Protest Activity

Beginning in March 2025, the Trump administration moved to detain and seek deportation of foreign students and scholars connected to pro-Palestinian campus protests, most visibly Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, arrested March 8, and Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk, detained March 25 after writing an op-ed on Gaza. The State Department revoked roughly 300 student visas as part of the effort, which followed a January executive order to combat campus antisemitism.

The administration described the actions as national-security enforcement, while civil-liberties groups and many students called it retaliation for protected speech. A federal judge later found in September 2025 that the broader ideological-deportation campaign targeting such students was unconstitutional.

The episode raised concerns about chilling effects on academic speech and international enrollment, and became one of several fronts in the administration's confrontations with universities over protest activity and immigration enforcement.