Since February 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has escalated a disturbing pattern of allegedly abducting and forcibly disappearing international students, professors, lawful permanent residents, and others on valid visas. In many cases, these detentions had nothing to do with criminal activity and everything to do with political expression — particularly pro-Palestinian speech and organizing.

This is part of a sweeping crackdown designed to send a message: dissent will be punished. And the consequences extend well beyond the individual cases. The administration has already revoked over 6,000 student visas, including dozens tied directly to political expression. Others have chosen to self-deport. Even U.S. citizens have been detained or questioned about their political views at airports, on campuses, and in workplaces. The effect is a silent purge of classrooms, workplaces, and communities, chilling entire immigrant, activist, student, and academic populations and setting a precedent that will haunt civil liberties for years to come.

Some of the most alarming high-profile cases include:

• Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian and green card holder who graduated from Columbia University, was detained after participating in pro-Palestinian campus activism. He spent 104 days in ICE custody before a federal judge ordered his release on June 20, 2025, concluding there was no lawful justification for his detention.

• Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish PhD candidate at Tufts University, was arrested after co-authoring an op-ed about Palestine. Her visa was terminated. She was detained nearly two months before a federal judge ordered her release in May.

• Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University fellow and Indian citizen, was detained by ICE in Rosslyn, Virginia, on March 17, reportedly due to his and his family’s ties to Palestine. According to a federal court filing, Suri was subjected to inhumane conditions in custody and denied food, a bed, clean clothing, and contact with his family. He was treated as a “high-security” detainee despite not having been charged with a crime before his detention. Badar was freed on bond on May 14 after a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to re-detain him.

• Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student and green card holder, was reportedly lured to what he thought was a citizenship interview in Vermont, then detained and threatened with deportation to the West Bank. A judge ordered his release on April 30, 2025. 

Khalil, Öztürk, and Suri were seized by plainclothes officers and disappeared into remote detention centers – cut off from lawyers, families, and communities for more than 24 hours. Mahdawi was entrapped under false pretenses.

No charges. No due process. Just disappearances. What we are seeing is the weaponization of immigration enforcement against constitutionally protected speech and dissent.

*When we say ICE allegedly forcibly disappeared people, we mean individuals were taken by federal agents without any warning, no immediate notice to their families, legal counsel, or communities, and were held for extended periods. No one knew where they were being held for over 24 hours in multiple cases, mirroring tactics more commonly associated with authoritarian regimes than with a country that claims to uphold civil liberties.