Indian student Ranjani Srinivasan self-deports from US: How does it work?

Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian PhD student at Columbia University, has “self-deported” after her visa was revoked by the Donald Trump administration. The scholar was targeted by the US government for participating in pro-Palestine protests at the Ivy League school last year.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked Srinivasan’s visa last week for allegedly “advocating for violence and terrorism” and supporting Hamas. Now, she has self-deported and left America.

But how did she do it? Let’s understand.

Who is Ranjani Srinivasan?

Ranjani Srinivasan is a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University who entered the US on an F-1 student visa.

The Indian citizen earned a Bachelor’s in Design from CEPT University in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad. They also got Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholarships to pursue a master’s degree in Critical Conservation at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, as per the Columbia University website.

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Srinivasan’s research “explored the continuities and transformations of caste rights within extractive economies in postcolonial India and received support from the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute,” the website mentioned.

Srinivasan also had a stint as an urban researcher for the West Philadelphia Landscape Project (WPLP) at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT, and a field researcher for international development agencies in South Asia.

According to NYU Wagner’s website, Srinivasan is interested in the “political economy of development, the spatial politics of land, and the sociology of labour.”

Ranjani Srinivasan self-deports

The US Department of Homeland Security revoked Srinivasan’s visa on March 5 for her alleged involvement in “activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organisation,” it said in a statement.

DHS also secured footage of Srinivasan using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home App to self-deport on March 11.

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“Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that one of the Columbia students who had her student visa revoked for advocating for violence and terrorism self-deported using the CBP Home App and ICE arrested a Palestinian student for overstaying her expired F-1 visa,” the department said in a statement.

Columbia student, Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was earlier arrested by US immigration officers for overstaying her student visa. Besides her, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist at Columbia, has also been arrested for his key role in Pro-Palestinian protests at the university campus last year. He is also facing deportation.

The Trump administration perceives campus protests at US universities against Israel’s war in Gaza last spring as support for Hamas.

Taking to X, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on Friday (March 14), “It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the US. 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.”

It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live & study in the United States of America.

When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country.

I’m glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers… pic.twitter.com/jR2uVVKGCM

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) March 14, 2025

The video posted by Noem purportedly shows Srinivasan at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

How self-deportation works

The Trump administration launched a new app on March 10 that allows undocumented migrants to “self deport.”

The CBP Home app has a “self- deportation reporting feature” that lets illegal immigrants “submit their intent to depart” the US, DHS said in a statement.

The application asks migrants whether they have “enough money to depart the United States” and whether they have a “valid, unexpired passport from your original country of citizenship”.

DHS Secretary Noem said in a statement that individuals have the option to “leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”

It has replaced the mobile app CBP One launched in 2020 by the previous Joe Biden administration to facilitate the legal entry of migrants at the border.

As per BBC, CBP Home also allows people to apply and pay for I-94 entry and exit cards up to seven days before travel, book scans for perishable cargo and check wait times at US border crossings.

DHS said the app, which is free across mobile application stores, is part of a $200 million domestic and international ad campaign calling for undocumented immigrants to “Stay Out and Leave Now.”

However, immigration lawyers have warned people from using the “self deport” feature of the app, saying it will likely only collect their personal data without giving a legal pathway for residency or citizenship.

“The Trump administration’s approach of “self-deportation” will only add chaos and cruelty to an already broken system,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group America’s Voice, told Axios.

Cárdenas said the app has triggered fears and encouraged self-deportation among immigrants who entered the US lawfully.

With inputs from agencies