‘I could be next’: international students at Columbia University feel ‘targeted’ after Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest

For students who aren't US citizens, a new reality includes feelings of surveillance, fears of being arrested and reluctance to visit family

It was 4am and a Columbia University master's student two months away from graduation lay awake in bed. His heart thumped so hard, his chest began to hurt. His hands got colder and colder; he was unable to speak. This had become an agonizing nightly routine for the 24-year-old from India since 8 March, when immigration officials handcuffed the Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil and took him into detention in Louisiana.

What scares me the most is that I would be fast asleep at home and I would hear a bang on my door and I'd be taken away in the middle of the night by Ice and nobody will ever know what happened to me," said the student, who attended multiple protests to support Palestine around New York City. It feels as if people are getting targeted for just speaking up for their political views last year."