The University of Alabama has confirmed the arrest of one of its doctoral students by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), adding to the growing list of foreign students targeted by the Trump administration.
“The University of Alabama recently learned that a doctoral student has been detained off campus by federal immigration authorities. Federal privacy laws limit what can be shared about an individual student,” the university said Wednesday, as reported by The Hill.
According to The Crimson White, the university’s student newspaper, the student in question is Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian national holding a student visa. He was arrested on Tuesday, but the exact charges against him, if any, remain unknown.
The Trump administration has been particularly targeting foreign students involved, in one way or another, in pro-Palestinian protests. It is relying on a law that allows the Secretary of State to deport any non-citizen deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy.
At least 300 visas have been revoked under this program, according to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Our worst fears have come true. Donald Trump, Tom Homan, and ICE have driven a cold, cruel dagger into the heart of UA’s international community,” said the College Democrats of the University of Alabama in a statement relayed by The Hill.
Other foreign students from prestigious American universities have also been arrested as part of this crackdown. Doroudi’s arrest comes in the same week as that of Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
This wave of arrests has raised concerns among international students and human rights advocates, who denounce the increasing politicization of immigration policies under the Trump administration. “This is an effort to silence all those with ideas contrary to the MAGA group,” according to some immigrant rights advocates.
