DHS arrests another student involved in Columbia university protests

DHS arrests another student involved in Columbia university protests
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The Department of Homeland Security has arrested a second student who was involved with Columbia University protests, the agency announced.

Leqaa Korda was arrested by agents from Homeland Security Investigations for allegedly overstaying her expired visa — which terminated on Jan. 26, 2022. She was also allegedly arrested in 2024 for her involvement in the protests, according to DHS.

Korda is a Palestinian from the West Bank, according to DHS.

The arrest comes nearly a week after plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was also involved in the protests at Columbia University.

The agency said another student involved in the protests — Ranjani Srinivasan, an urban planning student at Columbia and Indian citizen — used the CBP Home app to self-deport.

“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.”

Federal agents with DHS also searched two Columbia University student residences Thursday night but did not arrest or detain anyone.

In a statement, Columbia President Katrina Armstrong said the DHS agents had two search warrants signed by a federal magistrate judge authorizing them to enter non-public areas of the university and conduct searches of two student rooms.

“I am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in two University residences tonight,” Armstrong said in the statement. “No one was arrested or detained. No items were removed, and no further action was taken.”

The searches were part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on individuals it has described as espousing the views of Hamas and threatening the safety of Jewish students, according to sources.

Khalil was one of the leaders of the university encampment protests last spring, and is being held in Louisiana.

Khalil, a green card holder who has not been charged with a crime, is set to appear before an immigration judge on March 27.

Trump administration officials have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas. Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”

Earlier Thursday, at least 98 people were arrested at a protest in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City calling for Khalil’s release.

Separately, Columbia University announced Thursday that students who occupied the campus’ Hamilton Hall during pro-Palestinian protests last spring have been expelled, suspended for several years or had their degrees temporarily revoked.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Related Posts

Search for man missing for nearly 2 weeks in national park intensifies
Search for man missing for nearly 2 weeks in national park intensifies
Police are searching for a man who has now been missing for almost two weeks after visiting a national park in Colorado, authorities said. (National Park Service)

(MONTROSE COUNTY, CO) — Police are desperately searching for a man who has now been missing for almost two weeks after visiting a national park in Colorado, authorities said.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park staff and the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office have now asked for the public’s assistance in locating a missing person named as Jordan Marsters, a 31-year-old man from Denver, Colorado, who went missing nearly two weeks ago and hasn’t been hear from since Feb. 13, according to a statement from the National Park Service on Monday.

“Marsters was traveling through Grand Junction on February 11 and in Montrose on February 12,” officials said. “His last known locations were in Montrose on February 12 and 13 and at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on the morning of February 13 at approximately 7:20 am.”

Marsters is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing approximately 140 lbs. with blonde hair and blue eyes. last seen wearing a tan jacket and black hoodie and police say he was driving a white Kia Fuente rental car with Texas license plates “TXH4349.”

It is unclear how long Marsters was supposed to be traveling through the national park for but authorities have asked for anybody with information about his whereabouts or who was in contact with him on the days leading up to Feb.13, to contact Black Canyon National of the Gunnison National Park immediately.

 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Males detained by ICE to be housed in federal prisons, new memo says
Males detained by ICE to be housed in federal prisons, new memo says
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Males detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be housed in units in several federal prisons around the country, according to the memorandum of understanding between the Bureau of Prisons and ICE, obtained exclusively by ABC News.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities that will house ICE detainees are the Federal Detention Center, Miami; Federal Detention Center, Philadelphia; Federal Correctional Institution, Atlanta; and Federal Correctional Institution, Leavenworth in Kansas; and Federal Correctional Institution, Berlin in New Hampshire, according to the memorandum.

BOP will not house female ICE detainees.

“ICE shall only place detainees at institutions designated by the BOP and may not place detainees at institutions without specific authorization by BOP,” according to the agreement.

The agreement, signed on Feb. 6, said that ICE will have at least two officers at every BOP facility that holds ICE detainees and the BOP will have final say on who gets into the facility.

Detainees who are disruptive at facilities will be kicked out of BOP institutions, according to the agreement.

One source who ABC News spoke with said housing ICE detainees has not been BOP’s mission for some time, and suggested the staffing shortage might hinder the Bureau’s ability to care for ICE detainees.

Since his inauguration last month, President Donald Trump has been working to deliver on his campaign promise to crack down on immigration by targeting areas like birthright citizenship and refugee status.

The administration has even used Guantanamo Bay — the military base in Cuba — to house the influx of arrested migrants.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Federal judge holds Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for repeating false claims about election workers
Federal judge holds Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for repeating false claims about election workers
Alex Kent/Getty Images, FILE

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., held Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for violating a court order that barred him from making false and defamatory statements against two Georgia election workers after they secured a $148 million defamation judgement against the former New York City mayor in 2023.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell admonished the former New York City mayor for continuing to spread lies about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in November on his web show, saying she hoped that sitting through trial and agreeing to a consent judgement would have made Giuliani “stop saying such fabricated lies.”

The judge asked Giuliani, “$148 million wasn’t a sufficient incentive to stop the defamation?”

Giuliani was ordered by Howell to file a declaration acknowledging that he reviewed testimony and evidence from the defamation trial and that no testimony or government report contradicted the two election workers. Howell issued a $200 fine for each day Giuliani does not comply with the deadline to submit the declaration.

If Giuliani engages in further violations, Howell said the court would have to consider imprisonment or confinement.

“It is outrageous and shameful,” Howell said while reading her verdict. “This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani.”

Last week, a federal judge in New York also held Giuliani in contempt of court for failing to turn over personal property and information to the two election workers.

During the hearing on Friday, Giuliani took the stand briefly to go over bank documents from Giuliani’s bankruptcy case that showed his assets and liabilities that Giuliani has claimed are exempt assets including his house in Palm Beach, Florida, valued at $3.5 million.

When asked to verify bank accounts, Giuliani said, “They’re not my accounts, I don’t have access to them.” The former mayor said that because his accounts were frozen and because he is not able to withdraw from them, the bank accounts are not his.

“Illegally, you have tied up everything I have,” Giuliani said.

Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for Freeman and Moss, pressed Giuliani over payments he made in November, the same month he made the alleged defamatory statements about the election workers. Payments include taxes and utility payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

Gottlieb added the money should come from the assets Giuliani has said are exempt from creditor claims.

“We haven’t been able to come up with any other way we believe compliance can be coerced,” Gottlieb said.

He added, “The main thing the plaintiffs want is for Giuliani to stop defaming them.”

“I am very concerned based on the statements made today that Mr. Giuliani may not be persuaded from making statements without more severe sanctions,” Judge Howell said.

Ted Goodman, the former mayor’s adviser, said in a statement, “The public should know that Mayor Rudy Giuliani never had the opportunity to defend himself on the facts in the defamation case. This is an important point that many Americans still don’t realize due to biased coverage and a campaign to silence Mayor Giuliani. This contempt ruling is designed to prevent Mayor Giuliani from exercising his constitutional rights.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.