Student organizers at Amherst University in Massachusetts planned a demonstration Thursday to protest the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil in Columbia and called on UMASS administrators to protect at-risk students.
At Harvard, about 27% of students enrolled in the 2024-2025 academic year are international.
Even before Khalil was detained, Harvard organizers had been discussing how to keep each other safe, hold some “know your rights” meetings, and contact international students separately, Barron said.
“Columbia also articulates this at Harvard, that is that our university governments are not our protectors,” Barron said. “In fact, they endanger our entities along with the federal government. So we’ve been thinking about ways to protect each other.”
Harvard declined to comment.
The Trump administration said its aim is to get rid of liberalism on university campuses, a rebuke that has caused rampant anti-Semitism since the fall of 2023.
Following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, many Jewish students reported harassment and social exclusion, with Hamas killing about 1,200 people and another 250 hostages, and Israeli retaliatory bombing against Gaza, where about 50,000 Palestinians died. Some are also upset about the kind of remarks often heard in pro-Palestinian protests, including the “globalization uprising”, and some hear this as a call for violence against Jews.
During mass demonstrations last spring, pro-Palestinian protesters interfered with classes and graduation ceremonies and blocked some campuses from time or weeks. More than 3,000 students nationwide were arrested during police raids on pro-Palestinian camps and protests, with some activists and free speech advocates described as a repression of political expression.
The Trump campaign promises to call the administration a “family” student and cut funding for schools that allow “illegal protests” to occur.
Trump signed an executive order in January to fight anti-Semitism against university campuses and promised to revoke visas for foreign students found to be “Hamas sympathizers.” Over the weekend, the government cut off Columbia University funds, the center of protests against the Israel-Hamas war, where immigration agents arrested Khalil and arrested Khalil on Trump’s instructions. Officials did not say Khalil had connections with Hamas and he was not charged with a crime. A federal judge in New York City stopped Khalil’s deportation on Monday, and the court believes the lawsuit challenges his detention.
Richard Solomon, a MIT PhD student in political science and organizer of the MIT alliance Palestinian League, said he would “not be surprised” if there were mass protests at MIT next week about the Trump administration’s attitude toward Israel and Gaza and Khalil’s goals.
“It certainly mobilized us and brought us together and brought us new discoveries and enthusiasm for activism,” Solomon said.
William Chaney, a teaching assistant at UMASS Amherst, said American student organizers there are discussing how to ensure the safety of foreign peers, which could include “self-censoring” students or limiting their presence on the Internet.
“It’s really a big discussion,” Chaney said. “We have a song, ‘Who makes sure we’re safe? We make sure we’re safe.'”
For some international students on New England campuses, Khalil’s arrest caused so much fear and shock that the federal government could see them as problematic attitudes in words.
A graduate student and teaching assistant at UMass Amherst in Colombia said she did not attend any protests, but she should be extra careful about what she said in the classroom due to concerns that students might complain or report her. This graduate student asked to be identified by her middle name. Juliana said she plans to keep a low profile until she completes the plan. Some of her friends decided to leave the United States.
“There is a lot of uncertainty, and [this] Unpredictable levels. ” Juliana said.
She said the aggressiveness of the mass arrests on the state’s flagship campus last May was her turning point. She lost any confidence that she could share controversial views without retribution.
“I’m from a war zone and have never seen a level of organization to adolescents,” Juliana said. “It’s just that the response to threats and the level of threats is so disproportionate. . . . It’s really scary to see what’s going on.”
Nathalie, an international student from Brazil studying at Harvard University, said she and her friends have been paying close attention to immigration-related developments since the election. At first, she wasn’t worried because she was legally on the student visa, but Khalil’s arrest shocked her.
“Now, we know these situations are likely to happen,” Natalie said. “We have to make sure everything we say, we have to be careful.”
She said she and her friends avoid discussing Khalil’s arrest on social media and even texting it for fear of what could happen if they publicly criticized the Trump administ
However, Barron of Harvard University said she has received inquiries from people interested in joining the protest movement in recent days despite the increased risks.
“It’s just keeping a cautious and continuous balance, and not letting them scare us into surrender,” Barron said.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe staff
Since Trump took office, few university leaders have spoken openly about protecting foreign and activists. After the election, several schools told students and staff to return to campus before the president’s inauguration and urged them to take care of their holiday travel. Enrollment for new international students fell by about 8% between 2016 and 2019, largely due to the increase in visa restrictions and screening processes, according to data from the Open Door.
Many universities, including Harvard and Columbia, changed or articulated their rules on protests on campus after the turmoil last spring. University leaders said they limited the protests to environments that did not undermine the academic function of the school in order to conform to the long-term principles of the appropriate time, method and venues of demonstrations. The rules constitute selective law enforcement aimed at squeezing pro-Palestine pronunciations, activists say.
Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the President’s Higher Education and Immigration Alliance, a coalition of more than 500 campuses, said campus leaders across the country are attending her group’s webinars and conferences to ask questions about how to help students. She said most schools do the work behind the scenes, rather than making public statements.
“It’s a very turbulent environment with high levels of uncertainty and concern,” Feldblum said. “Some [students] More vulnerable and vulnerable than others. ”
Mike Damiano, a global worker, contributed to the report.
Hilary Burns can be contacted at hilary.burns@globe.com. Follow her @hilarysburns. Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be contacted at giulia.mcdnr@globe.com. Follow her @giuliamcdnr.