 "Why Indian student, who self-deported from US, says Columbia ‘betrayed’ her")
Indian student Ranjani Srinivasan made headlines earlier this month after she “self-deported” from the United States following the revocation of her visa.
She was nearing the end of her doctorate in public planning when her student visa was cancelled by the Donald Trump-led administration because she was suspected of supporting Hamas and spreading its message.
According to the PhD student, Columbia University, her alma mater, “let her down,” and she hopes that her enrolment there will be reinstated.
She further claims that her vocal support of pro-Palestinian causes was the reason she was singled out.
Here’s what she said.
Columbia University ‘let me down’
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Srinivasan, who came to the US to study on an F-1 student visa, said she felt betrayed by her university.
“I spent five years at Columbia, working – I don’t know – maybe 100 hours a week sometimes… I never expected the institution to let me down. But it did," she said.
Even if her visa is restored, the Indian student also said she wasn’t sure if she would feel comfortable going back to the US to finish her PhD.
“I hope Columbia comes to its senses and re-enrols me," Srinivasan noted.
“All the requirements for my PhD are complete, and whatever is left, I don’t even need to be in the US for. So I’m trying to appeal to Columbia to do that."
There has been no official statement issued by Columbia University.
Also unknown is whether Srinvasan had an understanding with Columbia that restricted her from discussing her political beliefs at all while she was a student there.
Targeted due to pro-Palestinian views
She was designated a “terrorist sympathiser” and her visa was cancelled by the US Department of Homeland Security because she had “advocated for violence and terrorism.”
Srinivasan, however, has denied these allegations, describing them as absurd.
“If supporting the idea of human rights or ending a genocide is equated with supporting Hamas, then anyone in proximity to me – without me having done anything – can just be picked up and made an example of," she told Al Jazeera.
According to Srinivasan, she was targeted because of her vocal support for Palestinian rights and her social media condemnation of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Although she acknowledged taking part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past, she also maintained that she was never a member of any organised groups at the institution.
She also noted that throughout a large portion of April 2024, when student-led protests grew more intense on campuses around the US, she wasn’t even there.
Self-deportation
In the Al Jazeera interview, Srinavasan said she was forced to flee the US and seek refuge in Canada when she received an email from the US Consulate in Chennai stating that her student visa had been revoked.
A few hours later, she recalled, as she was still attempting to make sense of the situation by reaching out to officials at Columbia and her PhD group, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrived at her home, likely to detain her until she could be deported by air. However, she didn’t answer the door.
She wasn’t home when the agents came back the following evening and asked to see her. They had to be dealt by her flatmate.
Mahmoud Khalil, another Columbia student, was arrested on campus a few hours later, sparking tensions between students and the administration.
Srinivasan, who was now afraid of being arrested, escaped with a suitcase that contained her valuables, documents, and necessities.
While she was evading capture, agents were constantly searching for her .
She somehow escaped from New York on a flight to Canada on March 11 after eluding authorities, where she met up with her friends and family who rescued her.
In a widely shared video, she was seen carrying a backpack filled with her possessions on CCTV footage taken at LaGuardia Airport in New York.
In December, one month prior to Trump’s inauguration, her student visa was extended. On March 5, 2025, the US Department of State cancelled her visa.
The department also verified that she used the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home App to self-deport on March 11, 2025, and that video footage of the procedure was obtained.
The CBP Home App allows undocumented immigrants to submit a ‘intent to depart’ form and leave voluntarily.
She did, however, depart using a visitor’s visa that she had previously acquired for academic conferences and seminars, Srinivasan claims.
Srinivasan has an M.Phil. in Urban Planning from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), according to her biography on NYU Wagner’s official website.
She also holds a Bachelor of Design degree from CEPT University and a Master’s in Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
Her bio also suggests that Srinivasan’s research centers focus on the changing dynamics of land-labor relations in India’s peri-urban areas. It revealed that their primary areas of interest “in the political economy of development, the spatial politics of land, and the sociology of labour."
With inputs from agencies
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