Permanent residents in the U.S. have faced detention and deportation while tourists have been turned away under the new immigration regime taking shape under the Trump administration.
Immigration officials face accusations that they have targeted individuals because of their political opinions or because they have taken part in political activities, such as protests or demonstrations.
University of Alabama doctoral student detained
Iranian citizen Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, has been detained by ICE. The university said in a statement Wednesday that the detention of a student occurred off campus, according to The New York Times. While Doroudi was not named by the school, ICE records indicate that Doroudi was arrested by federal immigration authorities. It remains unclear why he was targeted.
Doroudi studied mechanical engineering at the university, according to a LinkedIn page listed in his name. He specialized in metallurgical engineering, with a focus on metals for industrial use.
A University of Alabama student paper, The Crimson White, initially reported on Doroudi’s detention on Wednesday.
Tufts University doctoral student who co-authored op-ed supporting Palestine arrested
The arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk was caught on video, showing ICE walking up to the Turkish doctoral student.
Surveillance footage of the arrest shows plainclothes federal agents approaching her from the street outside her off-campus apartment before putting her in handcuffs.
A man covered by his sweatshirt hood appears to approach Rumeysa Ozturk without identifying himself and then grabs her arm. Another officer approaches and takes her phone while she is placed in handcuffs. Three officers cover their faces with neck gaiters.
Ozturk, a PhD student in the graduate school of arts and sciences at the Massachusetts university who is legally in the United States on a non-immigrant F-1 visa, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Tuesday outside her apartment on her way to an Iftar dinner to break her Ramadan fast with friends near her home in Somerville, according to her attorney and activists.
In an email to the Tufts community, university president Sunil Kumar said the school was told that federal authorities terminated her visa status, “and we seek to confirm whether that information is true.”
Georgetown researcher detained at home in Virginia
Georgetown University graduate student Badar Khan Suri, originally from India, was detained last Monday night at his home in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. Masked agents said his student visa had been revoked.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Suri has been accused of "spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media" as well as having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
On Thursday, a judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting him as his legal challenge against his arrest plays out.
Unnamed French scientist detained because of texts
A French researcher, whose name has not been revealed, was reportedly stopped from entering the U.S. earlier in March because of text messages criticizing the Trump administration’s academic research policies.
The scientist was on his way to a conference close to Houston at the time, according to Le Monde.
The French minister of higher education and research, Philippe Baptiste, said in a statement that "Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold. I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them while respecting the law.”
Baptiste took to X to say that he had asked for an emergency meeting with other European ministers to establish a plan to defend academic freedom.
"Europe must rise to the occasion to protect research and welcome the talents who can contribute to its success," he said.
It was reported that the researcher had been blocked because of text messages found on his phone criticizing the Trump administration’s policies on research. The Department of Homeland Security denied this, saying the man was found to have “confidential” data from a U.S. lab.
Brown University doctor detained at Boston airport
Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, was detained and deported this month as she arrived back in the U.S. at an airport in Boston. A DHS spokesperson said she went to Beirut to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the late leader of Hezbollah.
Alawieh, who specializes in kidney medicine, was previously on a J-1 visa for “exchange students,” but Brown University subsequently sponsored her H-1B visa, a complaint states.
Officers “determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” according to a filing from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady.
Alawieh has been working at Rhode Island Hospital for the last year caring for kidney transplant recipients, the transplant division’s medical director Dr. George Bayliss told the Boston Globe. “I am outraged and upset,” Bayliss said. “The government is acting without regard for the courts.”
The mother sent to a country where she doesn’t know anyone and can’t speak the language
Ma Yang, a 37-year-old Hmong-American, had been living in the U.S. since she was a baby and was a legal resident with a green card. However, the mother of five was detained and then deported to Laos, a country she had never been to – having been born in Thailand – and where she says she doesn’t know anyone and can’t speak the language.
However, she was stripped of her green card by the Trump administration some two-plus years after being released from federal prison, where she served 30 months on marijuana-related charges.
In February, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Yang to report to the agency’s Milwaukee facility. When she showed up, agents detained Yang, sent her to Indiana, then Chicago, and finally was shipped off to Laos. She says she doesn’t know anyone in the Southeast Asian country and can’t speak the language.
In a previous interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Yang said her attorney in the case never told her deportation was a possibility. Defense attorney Matt Ricci, who represented Ma Yang in the 2020 marijuana case, disputed this on Monday, saying his files and notes showed otherwise. He said he told Yang at the time that deportation “could happen,” but that he didn’t think it “would happen.”
Welsh tourist detained after problem with visa
Rebecca Burke, 28, a Welsh artist, was detained on February 26 after she “set off on the trip of a lifetime across North America,” according to a GoFundMe page. She was reunited with her family this month after spending 19 days in a processing center after being denied entry at the border between the U.S. and Canada.
Burke had been residing with host families, with whom she helped out with chores in exchange for her stay. As she attempted to enter Canada, authorities believed that she may need a work visa, and she was told that she had to go back to the U.S.
"She was refused re-entry and classified as an 'illegal alien,'" her father wrote. "Despite being a tourist with no criminal record, she was handcuffed and taken to a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington."
Her father said she had been led on to the plane in chains “like Hannibal Lecter.”
Pro-Palestinian activist with green card arrested
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by federal agents despite being a lawful permanent resident with a green card after he was involved in last year’s protests and encampments in support of Palestine at Columbia University.
The Department of Homeland Security said it had collected evidence that Khalil was actively, but not materially, supporting Hamas. Officials concede that he has not committed any crimes. A DHS spokesperson claimed in a statement that Khalil "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
The spokesperson added that Khalil was detained "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism."
His eight-months-pregnant wife, a U.S. citizen, said that he was seized by agents in front of her at their university-owned apartment.
Canadian detained while trying to get work visa
Canadian actor and entrepreneur Jasmine Mooney was detained at the border in San Diego as she legally went through the process of trying to get a work visa. She was detained for about two weeks, writing in The Guardian that "There was no explanation, no warning. One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the U.S.”
"The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an ICE detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer,” she added.
She said she was held in a local prison for two days before transported – in a jump suit and chains – to the detention center.
She had been applying for a TN visa, which allows professionals from Canada and Mexico to stay temporarily in the U.S. It was not clear why she was detained.
Germany updates travel advisories after several citizens detained
Germany updated its travel advisories for the U.S., noting its immigration enforcement after several Germans were detained.
Twenty-five-year-old Lucas Sielaff spent two weeks in detention before being allowed to return to Germany. Because of a language barrier, he got an answer wrong regarding where he lived as he attempted to re-enter the U.S. from Mexico.
Jessica Brösche, 29, spent more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement, as she was traveling with tattoo equipment, with border officers believing that she was trying to work unlawfully in the U.S., according to The Guardian.
U.S. permanent resident Fabian Schmidt, 34, was detained on his way back from Luxembourg on March 7. The electrical engineer, originally from Germany, has held a U.S. green card since 2008 and renewed it last year, according to his mother, Astrid Senior, who also lives in the U.S. on a green card.
He was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport on March 7 after returning from a short vacation visiting family in Germany. Senior claimed he was “interrogated” before being taken to Rhode Island’s Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls. She has not heard from her son since March 11.
An immigration hearing has been set for June. Officials have referenced drugs and DUI charges dating back to 2015.
With reporting from Rhian Lubin, Kelly Rissman, Alex Woodward, Justin Rohrlich and Joe Sommerlad
