Leqaa Korda was arrested by HSI for allegedly overstaying her expired visa which terminated on January 26, 2022. She also allegedly was arrested in 2024 for her involvement in the protests, according to DHS.
Korda, according to DHS, is a Palestinian from the West Bank.
"Just last night, we worked with the Department of Homeland Security to execute search warrants from an investigation into Columbia University for harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus," said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. "That investigation is ongoing, and we are also looking at whether Columbia's handling of earlier incidents violated civil rights laws and included terrorism crimes. This is long overdue."
The announcement comes after the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead student protests at the school and is facing deportation.
Khalil was rushed from New York to Louisiana last weekend in a manner that left the outspoken Columbia University graduate student feeling like he was being kidnapped, his lawyers wrote in an updated lawsuit seeking his immediate release.
The lawyers described in detail what happened to the Palestinian activist as he was flown to Louisiana by agents he said never identified themselves. Once there, he was left to sleep in a bunker with no pillow or blanket as top U.S. officials cheered the effort to deport a man his lawyers say sometimes became the "public face" of student protests on Columbia's campus against Israel's military actions in Gaza.
Khalil's attorneys on Friday released cell phone video his 8-month-pregnant wife shot as ICE agents took him into custody last weekend.
"Mr. Mahmoud is not here on a student visa, he was previously but he had become a lawful permanent resident, when I mentioned that to the ICE agent, he said the secretary of state was revoking that too," said Khalil's attorney Amy Greer.
Khalil's attorney says agents never produced a warrant when they took him into custody.
His supporters say this is about suppression.
"What's going to stop any other student from being disappeared and deported for something that they may or may not have even stated?" said Columbia senior Sebastian Javadpoor. "There is no due process, and I think that students here on this campus are incredibly afraid of if they're going to be the next person sent away to a random detention center in Louisiana."
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump heralded Khalil's arrest as the first "of many to come," vowing on social media to deport students he said engage in "pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity."
DHS also says another student involved in the protests used the CBP Home app, which DHS just rolled out to make it easier for those in the U.S. illegally to self deport.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an urban planning student at Columbia and Indian citizen used CBP Home to self deport, DHS says.
"It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. "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 sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport."
The latest details come after Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring, and had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.
The university said Friday that 22 students were sanctioned for last year's protests, "ranging from multi- year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions."
On Friday, a student walkout was held at the university, with protests taking place outside the campus gates.
In the morning, the home of Interim President Katrina Armstrong was vandalized with graffiti saying, "free them all."
(ABC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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