Alyssa Lukpat and Victoria Albert:
College campuses were historically considered a haven for activism. Not anymore.
Students returning to school are grappling with the fallout from the Trump administration’s detention of foreign student protesters and universities tightening rules for demonstrations.
“It’s going to be a very tense fall,” said graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi, who is returning to Columbia University after spending two weeks in immigration detention this spring.
It has been roughly six months since the Trump administration arrested Mahdawi’s classmate and fellow protester, Mahmoud Khalil, an opening salvo in what has become a battle over the limits of free speech on college campuses.
Khalil and other foreign students living legally in the U.S. spent weeks to months in immigration detention centers far from their families. Others gave up their fight to stay in the country.