Following through on a campaign pledge to crack down on the massive anti-Israel student protests that swept universities across the United States in 2024, President Donald Trump has detained an increasing number of foreign student protesters accused of harassing Jewish students and promoting an extremist agenda.
However, these arrests and other crackdowns on alleged criminal foreign students have been met with fierce resistance in the courtroom. A federal judge in California on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the country, according to court documents, dealing a blow to the crackdown on students “identified in a criminal records check and/or have had their visa revoked. “
As for students involved in anti-Israel activism, below are several of the most high-profile individuals detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for alleged pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic activity.
Mahmoud Khalil
An Algerian citizen who entered the U.S. in 2022 on a student visa to attend Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil quickly became the face of the student protests that rocked the school’s campus in 2024. The “Gaza solidarity encampment,” a collection of tents unlawfully occupying campus grounds, demanded Columbia officials divest from Israel, and many protesters were accused of harassing Jewish students.
The protests became so aggressive that campus officials in May 2024 canceled their university-wide graduation ceremony. Khalil appeared at many protest events and served as a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group critics accuse of being “virulently anti-Israel” and “openly pro-Hamas.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Khalil on March 8 and eventually transferred him to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, where he has remained as the administration fights to deport him out of the country. Democrats and immigration advocates have vehemently contested his arrest and attempted removal.
While a judge earlier in April ruled that Khalil is amenable to deportation, he is planning to challenge his removal in court.
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Moshen Mahdawi
Columbia University student Moshen Mahdawi was arrested by ICE agents in Vermont in April. Born and raised in the West Bank, Mahdawi relocated to the U.S. in 2014 and eventually obtained permanent status, according to his attorneys. A friend of Khalil’s, Mahdawi, also became a significant leader in anti-Israel student protests that swept Columbia University in 2024.
While his lawyers frame him in court documents as a peaceful Buddhist who abhors violence, groups that track pro-Hamas actors paint a far different picture of Mahdawi. The Canary Mission, which collects dossiers on alleged anti-Semitic activists, has amassed an extensive list on him. The group highlighted an interview in which Mahdawi gave a speech in October 2023 in which he appeared to justify the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas terrorists, arguing that “Hamas is the product of the Israeli occupation.”
In documents submitted to the court, prosecutors pointed to an incident in 2015 in which Mahdawi visited a Vermont gun store and allegedly told the owner that he “had considerable firearm experience and used to build modified 9mm submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.” The gun store owner told law enforcement that Mahdawi allegedly had a similar conversation with an additional gun enthusiast.
In April, an Obama-appointed judge ordered Mahdawi freed from ICE custody, deeming him not a flight risk and stating that his release was in the public interest.
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Badar Khan Suri
Georgetown University Student and researcher Badar Khan Suri was arrested by immigration authorities in March in Arlington, Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C., where his school is located. Originally from India, Khan entered the U.S. on a student visa and lived in the area with his Palestinian wife. DHS officials accuse Khan of spreading Hamas propaganda and having connections to the terrorist group.
“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” a DHS spokesperson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation at the time. “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
“The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025, that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable,” the spokesperson went on.
Suri’s petition for release says his wife, Mapheze Saleh, is accused of ties to Hamas and formerly worked for Al Jazeera, a news company largely funded by the Qatari government. A 2018 article published by the Hindustan Times identified Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef, as a former “senior political advisor to the Hamas leadership.”
Suri was released from federal detention earlier in May, but he still faces deportation proceedings in a Texas immigration court. He is currently petitioning the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention.
Alireza Doroudi
A University of Alabama doctoral student from Iran, Alireza Doroudi, was apprehended by ICE agents in March, the Crimson White, the school’s newspaper, reported at the time. Like the other students engaged in anti-Israel activism, DHS officials said Doroudi posed security risks and revoked his student visa.
“ICE [Homeland Security Investigations] made this arrest in accordance with the State Department’s revocation of Doroudi’s student visa,” a DHS spokesperson said, according to AL.com. “This individual posed significant national security concerns.”
A judge denied Doroudi bond on Thursday, finding that he failed to prove that he is not a threat to national security. The ICE locator database previously indicated he was held at the La Salle detention center in Jena, Louisiana, the same facility where Khalil is detained.
Rumesya Ozturk
A Turkish national currently attending Tufts University, Rumesya Ozturk, was arrested by immigration authorities in March just outside of Boston, DHS confirmed to the DCNF at the time. Like many of the other foreign students arrested before her, Ozturk used her time on campus to serve as an anti-Israel activist and was profiled by a watchdog that tracks anti-Semitism.
An op-ed Ozturk co-authored in March 2024 demanded that Tufts divest from all companies with “direct or indirect” ties to Israel and compared the country to apartheid-era South Africa. The Turkish national’s op-ed made zero mention of the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas militants that killed roughly 1,200 people and sparked the current Israel-Hamas war.
“A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to the DCNF about Ozturk’s arrest. “This is common-sense security.”
After roughly six weeks in ICE detention, U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions, an Obama-appointed federal judge, ordered she be released back into the community.
Leqaa Kordia
ICE agents out of Newark, New Jersey, arrested Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, in March for overstaying her expired student visa. Kordia acknowledges in court documents that she attended an anti-Israel rally at Columbia University on April 30, 2024, where activists violently clashed with police, leading to numerous arrests, but claims she wasn’t involved in the violence.
“Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was another Columbia Student who actively participated in anti-American, pro-terrorist activities on campus,” DHS said in a social media statement. “Kordia was arrested for immigration violations due to having overstayed her F-1 student visa, which had been terminated on January 26, 2022, for lack of attendance.”
Kordia claims she dropped out of the student visa program around 2022 and stopped attending classes after a “trusted teacher” gave her bad advice, according to court documents. She is currently being detained at ICE’s Prairieland Detention Facility in East Texas and has complained about not being provided any halal meals.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
