Ranjani Srinivasan, a 37-year-old Indian student pursuing a doctoral degree in urban planning at Columbia Univeristy, self-deported last week, days after their student visa was revoked for participating in pro-Palestine protests. The US Department of State had cancelled their visa on March 5, citing security concerns related to her involvement in alleged activities "supporting Hamas".
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in a post on X, called Srnivasan a "terrorist sympathiser", saying that those who "advocate terrorism and violence" must not stay in the US.
Srinivasan, who is currently in Canada, recalled their ordeal, calling it a "dystopian nightmare".
"I'm fearful that even the most low-level political speech or just doing what we all do - like shout into the abyss that is social media - can turn into this dystopian nightmare where somebody is calling you a terrorist sympathiser and making you, literally, fear for your life and your safety," Srinivasan told the New York Times.
According to Srinivasan, their activity on social media had been mostly limited to liking or sharing posts that highlighted the human rights violations in the Gaza war. "I'm just surprised that I'm a person of interest...I'm kind of a rando (slang for random)," they told NYT.
Srinivasan's decision to leave the US came two days after the federal immigration officials visited her home, causing fear and uncertainty in them. She said the situation had become extremely "volatile and dangerous" that they made the a quick decision to self-deport and leave the country, the NYT reported. The Indian student just packed their bags, left their cat behind with a friend, and left, it added.
Self-deporting, or leaving voluntarily before authorities take action, avoids the risk of one being put on a US military aircraft and sent home like the deportees who recently arrived in India.
Columbia University's website shows Srinivasan referring to themselves with the gender-neutral "they" pronoun.
Srinivasan was doing research focussing on the evolving nature of land-labour relations in peri-urban statutory towns in India and received support from the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute for it. They have a Bachelor's Degree from CEPT (Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology) University in Ahmedabad and a Master's Degree from Harvard with Fulbright Nehru and Inlaks Scholarships. They have worked for an environmental advocacy nonprofit in Washington on "frontier communities at risk from climate change" and as a researcher for the West Philadelphia Landscape Project (WPLP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The website said that the Indian national is broadly interested in urbanisation, the political economy of development, and historical geographies of capitalism and caste.
