Will college campus protests stop as ICE makes arrests?

In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security has taken action against lawful permanent residents and visa holders at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Tufts, and the University of Alabama. Federal officials say the crackdown will continue.

That's a source of concern for dozens of Southern California students and faculty who were suspended or arrested during Gaza solidarity encampments and protests in spring 2024.

At UC Irvine, “the time, place and manner restrictions have been broadcast and emphasized,” said Brook Haley, a humanities lecturer who was arrested last spring and charged with a misdemeanor for “failure to disperse at [the] scene of [a] riot.” As a U.S. citizen and faculty member, he believes he’s in “less precarious a position” than his international colleagues and undergraduate students, who have yet to launch their careers.

Haley said he senses “a chill” on campus, “not just for Palestinian rights, but [for] anything that might draw the attention of an administrator.”

“They've seen what happened to demonstrators at the encampment. They see the messages coming from the federal government,” he added. “People have realized that they need to spend a little time reflecting on the best forms of advocacy, in terms of safety for everyone involved and finding the best venues and the best ways to make those views known to as many people as possible.”

Bracing for more detentions

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that he’s signed more than 300 letters revoking the visas of students and other visitors because of their foreign policy views or criminal activities, and that he will continue to do so.

“If we knew this information about them before we gave them a visa, would we have allowed them in?” Rubio said Friday. “And if the answer is no, then we revoke the visa.”

Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who recently completed graduate studies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, served as a negotiator between the administration and a coalition of student groups opposed to Israel’s war effort. When immigration agents arrested Khalil in campus housing earlier this month, they were dressed in plain clothes and used unmarked vehicles to take him away. His detention has struck fear among campus activists across the country, particularly among international students.

A handful of students declined to be interviewed for this story, citing concerns for their personal safety and academic repercussions.

“One thing that is sometimes lost through the general aura of fear is that we have a system of checks and balances,” said Dina Chehata, civil rights managing attorney at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles chapter. The Trump administration, she added, “is sort of throwing everything [against] the wall and seeing what sticks. But we do have resources and mechanisms by which to challenge what is happening.”

Mark Gradoni, a doctoral candidate in UCI’s history department, was also arrested and charged with a misdemeanor last year. He said being a U.S. citizen and a “loud white guy” grants him a “level of safety that [his] international colleagues just don't have.”

Mark Gradoni, a graduate student at UC Irvine, teaches a world history class for undergraduate students.

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Julia Barajas

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LAist

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Gradoni also believes the Trump administration’s fixation on noncitizens is meant to cast the Gaza solidarity protests as “foreign” to the U.S.

“It's very concerning and frightening — but not unexpected — that [the federal government] would turn its attention on the most vulnerable elements of the pro-Palestinian coalition,” he said.

Malik Alrefai is a fourth-year political science major at UCI. He’s also the Chicago-born grandson of a Palestinian refugee. Alrefai is set to graduate this spring. “Assuming the administration doesn't block me,” he said. (At Columbia, some student protesters who occupied a building had their degrees temporarily revoked.)

Like Haley and Gradoni, Alrefai was detained and charged with a misdemeanor. He joined the encampment in part because of his personal connection to the cause, he told LAist, but also because he believes it’s vital to speak up when anyone is being hurt.

When it comes to future activism, the Orange County district attorney’s charge against him “definitely made me more wary and more cautious,” he said. “The reality is, were I to get detained again, I would likely find it escalated from a misdemeanor to a felony.”

Finding community in the road ahead

When Alrefai thinks about how to move forward, he recalls the day of his arrest. When he and the others were released, he told LAist, it was well past midnight, and they were all tired after spending hours in handcuffs. They were also hungry and dehydrated.

But “when we got out,” he added, “people were there, waiting for us.” Alrefai and the other arrestees were given food and water, then taken to speak with legal experts. “The community showed up for us,” he said.

Since then, Alrefai has noticed students have found new ways to support their fellow protesters. One student, who’s a U.S. citizen, is using social media “to ensure that others who are not in the same position are aware of where ICE agents are,” he said. When UCI arrestees have court dates, Haley added, “about a dozen of us show up, to support one another.”

Despite the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus activism, protests at colleges in Greater L.A. have continued. Earlier this month, for instance, the Irvine Faculty Association held a rally outside the university’s administration building. Haley said some 70 people came out to hear faculty members speak out against Khalil’s arrest.

At UCLA, students and faculty gathered outside a regents meeting to call for divestment from companies associated with the Israeli military, as well as for Khalil’s release.