How the US is weaponising immigration law

Adisturbing trend is accelerating in the United States: immigration law is being used not to protect borders or ensure national security, but to silence dissent, especially when it challenges American support for Israel. This growing crackdown disproportionately targets international students, researchers and visiting scholars from Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan. And now, as a new Trump-era travel ban looms, the risks are rapidly escalating.

Hundreds of students and professionals - many on valid visas or even permanent residency - have faced expulsion, arrest, deportation or coercive "self-deportation" for doing nothing more than peacefully advocating for Palestinian rights. The message is clear: in the US, your immigration status can now be revoked for your opinions.

The first high-profile case involved Mahmoud Khalil, a US permanent resident and graduate student at Columbia University, who was seized by ICE agents on March 8 while he was returning from an Iftar dinner with his pregnant wife. His green card was revoked on the spot. Within hours, he was shipped to a detention facility in Louisiana. His alleged offence? Helping lead a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest on campus. Former President Trump openly celebrated Khalil's arrest and warned that many more would follow.

Indeed, they have.

Dr Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese-born kidney specialist and adjunct faculty member at Brown University, was deported after ICE cited a private WhatsApp message in which she eulogised a slain Hezbollah leader. This, despite a court order barring her removal. No crime. No trial. Just speech.

Then there's Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish Fulbright scholar and PhD student at Tufts, who was kidnapped in broad daylight by masked federal agents. Her student visa was revoked due to her involvement in an academic op-ed supporting the Palestinian-led BDS movement. She was flown 1,500 miles to a Louisiana detention center.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was arrested in Virginia and quietly transferred to the same detention facility. Though his visa remains valid, DHS claimed vague "foreign policy concerns". His American wife, a neuroscientist, says she's been kept in the dark. His only "crime" may be having married the daughter of a former advisor to the political wing of Hamas, who the Americans are now negotiating with.

South Korean-born Yunseo Chung narrowly avoided arrest when ICE agents showed up at her door. A federal judge granted a temporary injunction, rebuking the government for using "foreign policy" as a pretext to silence campus speech.

Cornell PhD student Momodou Taal, born in the UK to Gambian parents, was not detained - but after protesting at a university career fair, his visa was revoked. He now faces possible deportation, pending litigation.

Even students uninvolved in any protest are under fire. Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian PhD candidate at the University of Alabama, was detained without explanation and remains in ICE custody. His university has said nothing.

These are not isolated incidents - they are part of a sweeping campaign. Hundreds of students have reported receiving early morning emails instructing them to leave the country immediately. Some, like Ranjani Srinivasan of Columbia University, fled to Canada after ICE visited her home. DHS published footage of her departure, branding her a "terrorist sympathizer".

What's chilling is how the US is gathering intelligence on these students. Leaks reveal that private pro-Israel groups like Betar and Canary Mission have employed facial recognition to identify protesters, then submit names directly to US authorities. AI-powered programmes scan social media and academic publications for political content - then quietly trigger visa revocations.

This is not national security. It's ideological enforcement. The US government is punishing lawful speech and branding it as terrorism.

Even allies aren't safe. As The Globe and Mail and Reuters reported, Canadians born in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan are increasingly being turned away at the US border - sometimes with valid visas, sometimes without explanation. Lawyers in Toronto and Mississauga report that businesspeople and tourists with clean records are being denied entry, interrogated about military service, or having their Nexus cards cancelled without warning.

And a new Trump travel ban reportedly targeting Pakistan and Afghanistan could come into effect in days, according to Reuters. Over 20,000 Afghans already cleared for US resettlement may be stranded - alongside Pakistani nationals who passed all vetting procedures.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a warning advising Pakistanis and others from Muslim-majority countries not to travel abroad unless absolutely necessary.

What makes this crackdown even more dangerous is the silence - or worse, the complicity - of other governments. India, for instance, has chosen to align itself with the Trump administration's immigration agenda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi echoed Trump's hardline rhetoric at a joint press conference, saying those who enter a country illegally have "no right to be there".

But the students now being deported, detained, or surveilled didn't enter illegally. They followed the rules, earned placements at some of the world's top institutions and exercised their right to speak. What's being punished is not their presence - but their conscience.

Islamabad must resist the urge to play diplomatic nice guy. If Pakistani citizens, students or professionals are being targeted for their speech, then it is incumbent on the government to speak up. Silence only signals weakness - and worse, surrender.

Pakistan has long suffered the consequences of being on the receiving end of US foreign policy. Now, we are witnessing the export of that repression into universities and courtrooms. A country that once claimed to be the "land of the free" is becoming a cautionary tale for democracy - and a live warning for other countries.

The weaponisation of immigration law is not just a US issue - it is a global precedent in the making. If democracies fail to defend the rights of their students and scholars, then they will have no moral standing when their own are targeted abroad.

This is not just about who gets a visa. It's about who gets a voice.