Power & Pushback: The Trump admin makes its case clear — it is deporting students simply for opposing the Gaza genocide

“McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled.”- Joseph McCarthy

Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted an infographic across its social media accounts. “If it crosses the U.S. border illegally,” the group wrote, “it’s our job to STOP IT.”

The graphic contained a list of things the agency is committed to stopping at the border: people, money, products, and ideas.

The Intelligencer sent ICE an email inquiring about that final item. “Do we have a list of these ideas?,” the paper asked. “Are there examples of ideas that ICE has prevented from illegally entering the country? Are there any task forces devoted to preventing these ideas?”

ICE never responded, but they deleted the post. “We regret any confusion that this error may have caused,” an ICE spokesman later said in a statement. “Our number one goal is to provide accurate information to the public.”

On the same day as the ICE post, a Louisiana immigration judge ruled that the Trump administration could deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for posing “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” to the United States.

Judge Jamee E. Comans said that the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence” that Khalil is “removable.”

That “clear and convincing evidence” is a one-and-a-half-page memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It doesn’t accuse Khalil of committing any crimes. It simply says that Khalil’s participation in Gaza protests interferes with the United States’s purported policy of combating antisemitism.

“Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio explains.

We know that the administration isn’t actually referring to antisemitism here, and there’s very little evidence that they care about the issue at all. If they did, they might express some concern about Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting the California wildfires were sparked by a Jewish space laser, RFK Jr. saying that COVID was manipulated by Ashkenazi Jews, or Elon Musk giving a fascist salute. They might not have pardoned a Nazi for participating in the January 6 insurrection.

On top of all that, Khalil clearly isn’t antisemitic, and many Jewish Americans have protested his detainment.

The problem is that Khalil spoke out against a genocide that is being funded and facilitated by the United States.

“I would like to quote what you said last time that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness,” Khalil told Comans after the ruling. “Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles was present today, nor in this whole process. This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family.”

“Today, reading from a pre-written decision, an immigration judge rubber-stamped a shameful determination by Secretary of State Rubio stating that one’s beliefs can lead to deportation. We should all be deeply concerned,” said Diala Shamas, a senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and one of Khalil’s lawyers.

“If Comans’ ruling stands, it establishes a precedent that says the government can meet the legal requirements for deporting a permanent resident based only on a letter from the Secretary of State that says, without any supporting evidence or testimony whatsoever, that the immigrant’s presence and activities in the United States jeopardize American foreign policy goals,” points out Mitchell Plitnick.

“Comans is also setting a precedent regarding due process, as she is effectively saying that a wild accusation without substantiation satisfies that requirement,” he continues. “The opportunity to use that against anyone who is not a full citizen of the United States would be absolutely open, and, eventually, would be used as precedent for doing the same to citizens.”

There are similar Constitutional concerns in the case of Rameysa Ozturk, the Tufts University student who was snatched off the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, by ICE agents for the crime of writing an Op-Ed and, like Khalil, sent to a detention facility in Louisiana.

The Washington Post reports that Rubio’s State Department found no evidence to justify her detainment, but proceeded with the kidnapping anyway. That information was contained in a March memo that was described to the paper’s John Hudson.

The absence of evidence meant that Rubio lacked grounds to revoke Ozturk’s visa under the provision they were planning to use, so they cited a different Immigration and Nationality Act authority that doesn’t require “a rationale and explanation, and evidence.”

“There’s a chain of communication that gets passed along to the attorney general, but there isn’t any requirement to justify or rationalize what exactly the removal [is based on],” immigration attorney Soulmaz Taghavi explained to the Post.

In recent days, we’ve learned more about the kidnapping of Ozturk and her treatment in Louisiana.

“I felt very scared and concerned as the men surrounded me and grabbed my phone from me,” Ozturk explained in a statement. “But I didn’t think they were the police because I had never seen police approach and take someone away like this.”

She said she thought they were going to kill her. When the vehicle she was thrown into stopped, one of the ICE agents told her, “We are not monsters. We do what the government tells us.”

Ozturk suffers from asthma and has had multiple attacks since she was detained. She is not allowed to access the medication she needs. She was not allowed to go outside and had limited access to food for the first week. She is one of 24 people in a cell that is meant for 14.

“When they do the inmate count, we are threatened to not leave our beds or we will lose privileges, which means that we are often stuck waiting in our beds for hours,” she said. “At mealtimes, there is so much anxiety because there is no schedule when it comes. … They threaten to close the door if we don’t leave the room in time, meaning we won’t get a meal.”

She was taken to the facility’s medical center during one asthma attack. The nurse told Ozturk, “You need to take that thing off your head,” before yanking off her hijab.

“I told her you can’t take off my hijab, and she said this is for your health,” says Ozturk. The nurse didn’t give her anything besides an ibuprofen.

Shortly after I began typing this newsletter, Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green card holder and student at Columbia University, was detained by ICE agents in Vermont.

Mahdawi was arrested during a naturalization interview. He arrived at the immigration office with hopes of becoming a U.S. citizen and left the building in handcuffs, on the verge of potentially being deported to the West Bank.

Mahdawi’s lawyers have filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the basis of his detention.

“Mr. Mahdawi’s unlawful arrest and detention come after Respondents adopted a policy on or before March 8, 2025, to retaliate and punish noncitizens for their speech and expressive conduct related to Palestine and Israel,” notes the petition. “Under the Policy, Respondent Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, has unilateral power to issue determinations that the presence or activities in the United States of individuals who protested or were outspoken critics of Israel would have potentially serious foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest.”

“Respondents’ actions plainly violate the First Amendment, which protects Mr. Mahdawi’s right to speak on matters of public concern and prevents the government from chilling constitutionally-protected speech,” it continues.

On April 2, Israeli forces bombed a UN clinic in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least 22 Palestinians. The clinic had been repurposed to serve as a shelter for displaced Gazans.

The attack, which ignited a massive fire, claimed the lives of nine children. Video of the aftermath shows a man holding the body of a decapitated baby.

“I was sitting with my family and suddenly a missile targeted us,” a witness told Al Jazeera. “The dust was all over the place. The martyrs were burned. We found human flesh. We found human bones. Innocent women and children were killed. Separated heads and different body parts were everywhere. It is something beyond logic and beyond imagination.”

Days later, Israel killed more than 112 Palestinians over a 24-hour period. Those bombings targeted a water desalination plant and multiple schools, including the Dar al-Arqam School in Gaza City where at least 18 children were among the dead.

“We haven’t slept all of last night. It was a bloody night. We’ve placed roofs over us, but they flew away,” said one resident. “We put up walls, but they fell on us. Where should we go?”

The Trump administration has made their position clear: if you oppose these horrors, you can be deported.

How many student visas have been revoked?

How many student visas has the Trump administration revoked? Last month, Rubio estimated that the number was 300. Attorneys have guessed it’s actually around 1,000, but the actual number is probably much higher.

Inside Higher Ed has developed a map that tracks the locations of student visa revocations. As I type this, the current count is 1,179 students.

As a result of this operation’s scope, some of the most useful reporting on this can be found in local media and college newspapers. I have rounded up some of that coverage below:

• University of Alabama student detained by ICE as State Department revokes visas
• 4 international students in Alaska lose visas ‘without prior warning’ amid Trump administration crackdown
• Revoked student visas at ASU reaches a count of at least 50, students demonstrate
• Five University of Arkansas students’ visas terminated by Department of Homeland Security
• Visas revoked for more than 3 dozen California university students and alumni
• Trump administration revokes almost two dozen student visas in Colorado
• At least 53 visas revoked at colleges and universities across Connecticut
• At least 8 University of Delaware students see visas revoked by the Trump administration
• Visas of 18 Florida International University students have been revoked: Officials
• 17 international students in Georgia accuse ICE of violating due process in visa revocation
• Several students at University of Hawaii have visas revoked
• International student visas revoked, including at least two in Idaho
• ‘Chilling silence’: Waves of Illinois’ international university students lose their visas
• Trump’s visa crackdown hits Indiana University
• Five University of Iowa international students have visas revoked
• KU issues travel warning for international students, faculty and staff
• Visas revoked for ‘small number’ of international students at University of Kentucky
• Trump administration terminates 14 student visas in Louisiana
• ‘We will not put up with ICE:’ Students call for sanctuary status at UMaine
• International students studying in Maryland lose U.S. visas, amid Trump college crackdown
• Visas revoked for 13 UMass Amherst, 4 Worcester Polytechnic Institute students
• 70 international students face deportation in Michigan. Trump won’t say why
• Minnesota’s international students fear deportation, being singled out for minor infractions — even a speeding ticket
• MU international students become targets for immigration status changes
• ACLU of Montana to represent international students in revoked visas case
• Four UNLV international students wrapped up in Trump’s visa crackdown
• UNH says 3 former students recently had SEVIS records terminated
• Trump administration revokes visas for foreign students at Rutgers
• International students at these New Mexico universities have had their visas revoked
• NYU, Fordham Student Visas Yanked in Widening Federal Dragnet
• Trump administration terminates six UNC-CH international student visas
• Trump administration revokes visas for international students at various Ohio universities
• U.S. government revokes 8 OSU international students’ visas
• 4 University of Oregon students’ visas revoked by Homeland Security
• ‘At least three’ Penn students had visas revoked, ISSS says
• RISD, Brown students have visas terminated amid Trump crackdown. What we know.
• USC among schools to confirm student visas revoked
• Homeland Security terminates NDSU student’s immigration status
• University of Tennessee discovers 9 students whose immigration statuses suddenly changed
• More than 100 international students’ immigration statuses revoked across Texas universities
• Utah colleges confirm dozens of international student visas terminated
• Trump’s student visa crackdown hits Virginia, 20+ revoked
• 14 student visas revoked at UW, Seattle University, and Gonzaga
• Student visas revoked; UW-Milwaukee groups protest
• WVU Tech students speak out on international students losing their visas