BREAKING: DHS Agents Descend on Columbia’s Campus – Again – to Serve Two Warrants
The raid came the same day the Trump administration demanded Columbia address “anti-Zionist” discrimination.
Less than a week after immigration authorities detained Columbia student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, Department of Homeland Security agents were back on the university’s campus to serve two search warrants.
“I am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in two University residences tonight. No one was arrested or detained,” Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong wrote in an email to the university community late Thursday.
“No items were removed, and no further action was taken. Federal agents from the DHS served Columbia University with two judicial search warrants signed by a federal magistrate judge authorizing DHS to enter non-public areas of the University and conduct searches of two student rooms.”
Armstrong wrote that the university was obligated to comply with the warrants, and that “University Public Safety was present at all times.”
“Columbia is committed to upholding the law, and we expect city, state, and federal agencies to do the same,” she wrote, adding that Columbia “will remain a place where…the rule of law and due process is respected and never taken for granted, and where all members of our community are valued and able to thrive.”
Trump’s Demands
DHS’ presence on the campus came just hours after it was revealed that the Trump administration – through the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration – delivered a letter to Columbia with a list of actions it demanded the university take before it would consider reinstating $400 million in grant funding it cut from the school over what it claimed was the university’s “inaction” in addressing antisemitism.
The Trump administration’s demands included, among other things:
Disciplining students involved in last year's protest at Hamilton Hall, when students occupied the building and renamed it Hind's Hall. “Meaningful discipline means expulsion or multi-year suspension,” the administration emphasized
Centralizing all disciplinary processes under the university president’s office, and empowering the president to suspend or expel students, with an appeal process only through the president
“Ban masks that are intended to conceal identity or intimidate others, with exceptions for religious and health reasons,” with masked individuals having to wear their school IDs outside their clothing
Formalizing a definition of antisemitism (the administration referenced the IHRA definition it uses, which may limit criticism of Israel) and addressing “Anti-Zionist discrimination in “areas unrelated to Israel or Middle East”
Implementing “comprehensive admissions reform”
Placing the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under an academic receivership for a minimum of five years – meaning, taking over the department and installing a new department chair
The administration requested “immediate compliance,” upon which they’d “hope to open a conversation about immediate and long-term structural reforms” to return the school “to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence.”
Expulsions, Suspensions, and Degree Revocations
Earlier Thursday, the university announced that it was issuing “multi-year suspension, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions” related to last year’s Hamilton Hall protest – already fulfilling one of the items on the Trump administration’s wishlist.
The punishments were doled out by the University Judicial Board, a group the administration wrote it wanted to eliminate in lieu of centralizing discipline beneath the president.
At least 22 students were impacted by the disciplinary processes, according to student organizers.
Columbia also expelled and fired Student Workers of Columbia union president Grant Miner, according to the union, just one day before contract negotiations were set to begin with the university.
“The shocking move is part of a wave of crackdowns on free speech against students and workers who have spoken out and protested for peace and against the war on Gaza,” the union wrote. “It is no accident that this comes days after the federal government froze Columbia’s funding, and threatened to pull funding from 60 other universities across the country.”
Prem Thakker is Zeteo’s political reporter. Send tips via email or Signal (premthakker.35).
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This is the same guy who pardoned the folk who violated the Capitol and injured and killed police. What a fucking hypocrite!!!
Looks like it’s time for unionized student workers to walk out on strike all over the country‼️