As this March 19th article from the Guardian illustrates, the Trump regime's attempts to terrorize and intimidate international students attending Columbia was immediately having the desired (fascist) effect:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/international-students-columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil
‘I could be next’: international students at Columbia University feel ‘targeted’ after Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest
"Now, Columbia students who are not US citizens, some who have vocally supported Palestinian rights, told the Guardian they feel they must be careful who they speak to and censor what they say. They fear being questioned by Ice agents, having their visas revoked or being arrested and detained. Some feel like they are being watched while walking around Morningside Heights and on campus, while others are reluctant to visit family or friends overseas in case they are not permitted back in the country.
“When I leave my apartment, when I go out, I’m just so much more aware and cautious of who’s around me,” said Seher Ahmed, a psychology master’s student from Pakistan. “I went for a run this morning, and I’ve never felt this way before, but I felt like everyone was, like, looking at me.”
Another student who arrived at Columbia in August last year to study journalism had been inspired by student reporters’ coverage of campus protests. She photographed a vigil where journalism school students recited names of the more than 100 Palestinian and Lebanese journalists killed in Gaza. For a reporting class, the 21-year-old wrote about an anti-Trump rally on election night that called for an end to the Israel-Gaza war. She posted her work and discussed related issues on Instagram and X.
But just days away from applying for a year-long work visa that would follow her expected graduation this May, she stopped posting her opinions and made her accounts private. She is reconsidering attending a friend’s wedding overseas in case she is not allowed back in the country. “I feel like I’m being paranoid, but I’m really scared,” she said."
![Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of
Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts, the US, on March 26, 2025 [AP
Rhoto]](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/255/988/605/461/902/original/a51516c601dd1065.jpg "Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of
Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts, the US, on March 26, 2025 [AP
Rhoto]")
![Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of
Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts, the US, on March 26, 2025 [AP
Rhoto]](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/248/698/170/774/448/original/b3988ab916af9d4b.jpg "Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of
Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts, the US, on March 26, 2025 [AP
Rhoto]")
