New Delhi: An Indian PhD student who left the United States after US Homeland Security revoked her visa for allegedly “advocating for violence and terrorism,” says she had never even participated in campus protests at Columbia University, let alone advocated violence.In a statement on Friday (March 14), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused Ranjani Srinivasan – who was on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student of urban planning at Columbia University – of being “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization”. The statement added: “On March 5, 2025, the Department of State revoked her visa. The Department of Homeland Security has obtained video footage of her using the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) Home App to self-deport on March 11.”Self-deportation is when a person chooses to leave by themselves after the cancellation of a visa, requiring no arrangement for their return home from the deporting country.The DHS statement added that her visa was revoked “for advocating for violence and terrorism”. “It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem while sharing a video of Srinivasan leaving.“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.”Srinivasan, who flew to Canada, told The New York Times that she was arrested at the entrance to Columbia University last year when pro-Palestinian protesters occupied another campus building. She maintained that she was not involved in the break-in but was returning to her apartment after a picnic with friends when she found herself navigating through a chaotic crowd of protesters and barricades on West 116th Street. According to the New York Times, she said police pushed her and took her into custody.She said she was detained only briefly and later received two summons—one for obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic and another for refusing to disperse.However, the NYT, citing court documents, reported that her case was dismissed and did not result in a criminal record.Her lawyer, Nathan Yaffe, stated that Srinivasan was among 100 people arrested “after being blocked from returning to her apartment and getting stuck in the street”.“The court recognized this when it dismissed her case as having no merit. Ranjani was just trying to walk home,” Yaffe told the newspaper.The US DHS told the NYT that her visa was revoked because she failed to disclose the summonses when renewing it last year. But it did not explain how dismissed charges for traffic obstruction or failure to disperse were linked to sympathizing with terrorism.Srinivasan explained that she had not disclosed the summonses as the charges against her had been dismissed by the judge.“Because I had not and the charges were dismissed, I sort of marked it as ‘no,’” she said. “But maybe that was my mistake. I would have been happy to disclose that, but just the way they had questioned us was sort of assuming that you had a conviction.”Another of her lawyers, Naz Ahmed described DHS secretary Noem’s statement on Srinivasan as “not only factually wrong but fundamentally un-American”.Srinivasan also stated that she was neither an activist nor affiliated with any group organising campus demonstrations. She noted that her social media activity on Palestine was limited to sharing or liking posts about human rights violations in Gaza and open letters in support of Palestine. “I’m just surprised that I’m a person of interest,” she said. “I’m kind of a rando, like, absolute rando.”On March 5, she received an email from the US Consulate in Chennai informing her that her visa had been revoked. When she contacted her university for guidance, she was advised to remain in the US and continue her studies. Two days later, immigration officials knocked on her apartment door, but she did not answer. They returned the next day, but she was not home. That night, she left the university and departed for Canada.DHS also said that another student, a Palestinian from West Bank, Leqaa Kordia was arrested by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) HSI Newark officers for overstaying her expired F-1 student visa.“Her visa terminated on January 26, 2022, for lack of attendance. Previously, in April 2024 Kordia was arrested for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City,” the statement said.The Homeland Security’s statement comes as video footage was released of Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest.Khalil, who was arrested on March 10, is a recent Columbia University graduate had been a lead negotiator for the 2024 Columbia student encampment demanding divestment from Israeli apartheid and genocide. Following his arrest, US president Donald Trump in a post on Truth Social, called Mahmoud a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and called his arrest “the first arrest of many to come”.The Trump administration has pulled $400 million in federal funding from the Columbia University over what Trump has called a failure to crack down on antisemitism on campus, after the university saw protests over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the US government’s support to it.