Dozens arrested in US as student protests over Gaza spread across country
Chaos engulfed campuses across the United States as pro-Palestinian student protests spread to universities across the length and breadth of this country.
A movement which started at Columbia University on the east coast has now spread to the north, south and west.
At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles at least 93 people were arrested during a volatile three-hour standoff between protesters and the police.
A protester is detained at the University of Southern California. Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
One young woman, wearing an Arab scarf, threw a bottle of water at officers and was tackled to the ground before being handcuffed and taken to a waiting police van.
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Heavily armed officers were sent to disperse pro-Palestine student activists who are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Others, who had formed a protest circle after police issued a dispersal order, were handcuffed one by one and frogmarched off campus by Los Angeles police officers.
Dozens of people were detained by police
The day had started relatively peacefully as hundreds of students gathered on the main lawn on campus.
Police did intervene to remove a number of tents that had been erected, but people holding signs which called for a ceasefire in Gaza soon filled the space.
As classes finished for the day, police issued a dispersal order, telling protesters over a loudspeaker that they had 10 minutes to clear the area or they would be arrested.
A group of at least 50 students remained, linking arms and chanting, “free, free, Palestine”. Some used a black marker pen to scribble on their arms the number of a helpline to call from prison.
Police officers turned out in force. Pic Reuters
“Are you scared of being arrested?” I asked one young woman. “No,” she replied. “I think the children in Gaza are more scared than me.”
I asked another why she feels so passionate about taking a stand on a war unfolding more than seven thousand miles away. “We know that we’re on the right side of this right now,” she said, “and if we’re not going to do this, then who is?”
The students here say they have two core aims. They are demanding that their university cuts all financial ties with Israel and that their country stops sending them weapons.
Amid the peaceful chants are potentially inflammatory songs about the state of Israel.
I asked one young man if he is concerned Jewish students may feel threatened and isolated on their own campus.
“None of the chants or anything that we’ve said is inherently antisemitic,” he said, “nor is the call for the liberation of Palestine inherently antisemitic”.
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Demonstrations are expected to continue across the US
As night fell, police here concluded that the best way to end today’s standoff was with more force.
My team watched as an officer pushed one young man to the floor and another woman was pushed back with a police baton.
They may have brought the protests to an end today but there is every chance they will erupt again in the days to come.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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