Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian PhD student at Columbia University, recently left the United States after her visa was revoked by the Trump administration. The revocation was due to allegations that she had been "advocating for violence and terrorism" and supporting Hamas. 

Ranjani, who was studying Urban Planning at Columbia University on an F-1 student visa, decided to voluntarily leave the country after her visa was cancelled, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Department of State cancelled Srinivasan's visa on March 5 after claiming she was "involved in activities supporting" the terrorist group Hamas. According to the department, it captured Srinivasan self-deporting on March 11 using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home App. “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,” a DHS statement said.

This incident follows the arrest of another Columbia student, Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank. Kordia was detained by ICE HSI Newark officers for overstaying her student visa, which had been terminated on January 26, 2022, due to lack of attendance. In April 2024, she was also arrested for participating in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City. “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,” said Noem in a statement. The Trump administration has consistently criticised campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza, claiming they show support for Hamas. Columbia University, known for its large number of international students, including many from India, has become a key target in President Trump's efforts to curb campus activism.

In a letter sent late Thursday evening, the administration called for the placement of Columbia's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS) under "academic receivership," a process in which an outside body assumes control, often as a punishment of poor management. The letter stated that the university must develop a plan to establish the academic receivership role by March 20. "Columbia University's continued financial relationship with the United States government" would suffer if they didn't comply, the letter warned. The university witnessed major pro-Palestinian protests in 2023 and 2024, with students demonstrating against the destruction caused by the war.

During a police crackdown on campuses, over 3,000 protesters were reportedly arrested. Last week, the Trump administration said that Columbia University will immediately lose almost $400 million in federal grants and contracts because of the "school's continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."

Since taking office on January 20, Trump promptly issued an executive order exhorting that foreigners who support "threats to our national security" or who have "hostile attitudes" toward US "citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles" to be removed. According to Columbia University's website, Srinivasan earned a Bachelor's degree in Design from CEPT University in Ahmedabad. She later pursued a Master's degree in Critical Conservation at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, supported by the Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholarships.

Her research focused on how caste rights evolved and adapted within India's post-colonial extractive economies, with backing from the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute. Srinivasan has also worked as a project associate at an environmental conservation and planning advocacy nonprofit in Washington, DC, and as a field researcher for international development agencies in South Asia. The Department of Homeland Security introduced the CBP Home app on March 10, which includes a feature that allows individuals staying in the country illegally to report their own departure. The CBP app gives such individuals 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”, the Homeland Security Department said.