Tuscaloosa, Alabama - A University of Alabama doctoral student was reportedly detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his home on Tuesday.
An Iranian PhD student at the University of Alabama was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week. © Wesley Hitt / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP Alireza Doroudi, a mechanical engineering student from Iran, was arrested off campus around 5 AM Tuesday.
According to the student newspaper , which first reported the arrest, Doroudi entered the country on a student visa issued by the US Embassy in Oman in January 2023. The visa was then revoked six months later.
A message in a group chat including Iranian students read: "After receiving the revocation notice, Alireza immediately contacted ISSS [International Student and Scholar Services] at the University of Alabama. ISSS replied with confidence, stating that his case was not unusual or problematic and that he could remain in the US legally as long as he maintained his student status."
At the time of writing, the ICE website does not list the location where Doroudi is being detained.
The arrest forms the latest in an alarming pattern of noncitizen students being targeted for detention and deportation under Donald Trump's administration, in many instances due to their support for Palestinian human rights.
These cases include the high-profile arrests of Columbia University graduate , Georgetown University post-doctoral researcher, and Tufts University graduate student , as well as the targeting of Columbia student and Cornell University graduate student .
As legal cases play out challenging the individual detentions, university professors this week to stop government's overall approach to deportation when it comes to campus Palestine solidarity protests.
