In early March, one of Columbia’s classmates, Mahmoud Khalil, heard about the arrival of an immigration agent, and she tripled her door, fearing that she might be the next one.

"I'm absolutely broken because he has a green card," she said. As a student with only a temporary visa, she thought they would definitely come for her. “That really scares me.”

Instantly, due to this fear, the student demanded her first place, T faced a decision, which was more than any decision she had faced in the turbulent year of participating in the pro-Palestine movement in Colombia. President Trump is trying to deliver on his promise to expel foreign-born student protesters like her. She should continue to speak out, she asked herself, what became the core reason that prompted her life? Or should she be silent, hoping to evade arrest and potentially expelled from the United States?

It is a senior estimate that international students across the country have to work hard as the Trump administration takes active action to silence campus criticism of Israel’s bombing of Gaza. It was cancelled student visas and drove outspoken foreign students to the Ice Detention Center, accusing them of providing no evidence to support Hamas terrorism, spread anti-Semitism and threatening the country's foreign policy.

"Mahmoud's detention is a catalytic moment for people to continue to advocate or to retreat altogether," T said in an afternoon in New York City Park, not far from the Columbia campus. "At this point, I don't think anything will stop me from advocating for Palestine. But I see that in all the international students around me. People are scared."

In the final weeks of their academic program, two international graduate students recently spoke with NPR and decided to continue speaking out despite the risk of losing their visa and being detained or deported, and how the decision affects their lives and future plans.

T, graduate student at Columbia University

T is a Palestinian writer and photographer who has published articles and photos of campus protests online, and, in a large extent, he said, countering the right-wing narrative of the pro-Palestinian movement with violent and anti-Semitism. She published under her own name, but it did not attract attention from international students on visas.

"I probably carry out every protest with the ability to record what is going on," she said. "I don't want this moment to be erased or manipulated in our history by that power. I want our voices to be heard on the ground."

She underestimated the pro-Palestinian view of how the federal government would expel students. She said Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts University student rümeysaöztürk, who made Plaporter pick up Bingbing agents in an op-ed she wrote, shocking her assumption that the constitutional right to speech would protect her.

T said, realizing that her life was reversed.

“I’m moving with the paranoid right now,” she said. “Every time I leave home, I prepare for detention emotionally and mentally.

She wasn't sure if the government had seen her. She fears being targeted by pro-Israel sites that posted names and photos of pro-Palestine students and called for deportation. She said she began to hide herself when she left the house: facial bread, sunglasses and scarf.

She believes this is not a surrender, but a necessary precaution. She said the international students around her began to retreat, so those who still object to what they think is the Gaza genocide - something Israel denies - felt even more exposed.

"I'm protecting myself so that I can keep posting, keep speaking, keep advocating myself," T said. "If you asked me a year ago, I don't think I would say I'd be happy to put my education and body in Palestine. Now, I don't think there is anything to stop genocide."

Even so, she said the process over the past few months has changed her post-Colombia plan. After completing her graduate program, she has been planning to adjust her student visa to a temporary work visa. She wanted to find a job in New York, a city she liked.

However, the relentless anxiety of her published books may have attracted the attention of immigrant agents but caused huge losses. A federal judge has ordered some students to be released from custody and raised concerns that their arrests are in violation of the constitution.

However, T decided a few weeks ago that after graduation this month, she would return to her homeland in the Middle East, where she would find new ways to support Palestinian rights, and importantly, she said, it would be safer.

"I think I realized: I can't live like this," she said. "It's just not normal."

F, Graduate Student, New York City

F requires that NPR retain her university name in addition to using only her first initial. She said the discipline was imposed on her participation in a pro-Palestine protest a few months ago. The federal government has put pressure on universities to master the discipline records of student activists, and she fears her school will be easier to find her.

“All of our international students, we thought, ‘What if it was me?’” she talked about her reaction to the first few students arrested by Ice agents. “Students with higher risk start talking to lawyers and arrange for this.”

F is also from the Middle East and has never considered the high risk of detention. She said she has been attending many protests, always as a participant rather than a leader.

She said she was shocked when Harrier was arrested, how fast the administration's bold commitment to President Trump continued. And how unconcerned freedom of speech and due process rights seem.

"They said we're going to do that, they did. Not only did they do that, but they brought this guy and the others to Louisiana," F said.

The detention made her think more seriously about her own safety. She considered covering her face. Before their arrest, Khalil, Mahadavi and Öztürk were all snatched away - the names, photos and abstracts of the protests they posted online. F said she was never eliminated and wanted to stay that way. She began to assess her contacts at each protest. If most people cover it up, she does the same, so as not to stick it out.

Like many student activists, F said that a year and a half after the start of the Gaza conflict, she was often numb to the endless reports of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs. She said the inner gui could be overwhelming. She believes losing a student visa or being detained and deported would be a small price to continue protesting against the killing.

"If something happened to my immigration status, because I am unwaveringly supportive of Palestine, I can definitely do it," she said, and the fact that the government successfully put some of the students around her threatened to deportation was inspired by her.

“This is a time when I think I still need to commit to the movement and take on higher risks that others can’t afford,” she said.

She also graduated this week and plans to continue working in New York.