Homeland security agents search two Columbia University students’ rooms
Agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted searches in two Columbia University students’ rooms on Thursday night, marking the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on some American universities.
The university’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, addressed the school community, saying she was “heartbroken” to inform them that “there were federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in two University residences tonight.”
Armstrong confirmed that no arrests were made, no items were removed, and no further action was taken at the private Ivy League college in New York.
Armstrong explained that the DHS had served Columbia University with two judicial search warrants, signed by a federal magistrate judge, which authorized the agents to enter non-public areas of the university and conduct the searches.
The university, she said, “is obligated to comply with the law” but added that the university’s public safety team was present at all times during the search.
Armstrong emphasized that Columbia was committed to ensuring that the “campus, students, faculty, and staff are safe” and said the school was “committed to upholding the law, and we expect city, state, and federal agencies to do the same”.
“I understand the immense stress our community is under,” she said. “Despite the unprecedented challenges, Columbia University will remain a place where the pursuit of knowledge is cherished and fiercely protected, 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. These are the principles we uphold and that guide us every day.”
However, the DHS search on campus occurred just days after federal immigration authorities arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and recent Columbia master’s graduate, who played a prominent role in the school’s pro-Palestinian protests last spring.
The search on Thursday night also came just hours after the Trump administration sent a letter to Columbia outlining changes it wants the university to meet before it will discuss lifting last week’s cancellation of $400m in federal funding to the university.
The demands include abolishing the university judicial board, an internal disciplinary body; formalizing the college’s definition of antisemitism; banning masks “intended to conceal identity or intimidate” on campus, often used by protesters; and granting full law enforcement authority to public safety officers. The letter also demands the placement of Columbia’s iddle East, south Asian and African studies department under academic receivership (when a department or program is taken over by outside administrators) for at least five years.
“We expect your immediate compliance,” officials from the General Services Administration, Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services wrote to Columbia in the letter.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, condemned the letter in a statement: “The subjugation of universities to official power is a hallmark of autocracy. No one should be under any illusions about what’s going on here.”
Alex Abdo, the institute’s litigation director, called the letter an “assault on the very foundation of higher education” and a violation of first amendment rights.
Earlier on Thursday, Columbia University took disciplinary action against students involved in the pro-Palestinian protests there last spring and who occupied Hamilton Hall, a campus building.
The school said its judicial board – which is comprised of students, faculty and staff selected by the university senate – determined “findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring”.
Names and the number of students suspended or expelled were not disclosed due to privacy laws.
Columbia University is also facing a federal lawsuit following the arrest of the prominent Palestinian activist, Khalil.
The lawsuit, filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations on behalf of Khalil and others against the school and the congressional committee on education and workforce, claims the university agreed to disclose thousands of private student records at the request of Congress.
The escalations at Columbia University come as the US education department’s civil rights office wrote to 60 universities on Monday warning them of potential “enforcement actions” over allegations of antisemitic harassment as well as discrimination on their campuses. On Friday, the same department announced it was investigating 45 universities for allegedly engaging in “race-exclusionary practices”.
Over the last few weeks, many universities have announced hiring freezes in response to uncertainty surrounding the current administration and potential funding cuts.
Hiring freezes have been announced at schools such as Harvard, Notre Dame, Columbia University’s medical school, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, the University of Pittsburgh, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emory University, the University of Vermont, North Carolina State University, the University of Washington, and the University of California, San Diego.
In a statement this week regarding the hiring freeze, Harvard University’s leaders said that “universities throughout the nation face substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies”.
They said that the institution needs to “prepare for a wide range of financial circumstances, and strategic adjustments will take time to identify and implement”.
The decision to impose a hiring freeze, they noted, was intended to “preserve our financial flexibility until we better understand how changes in federal policy will take shape and can assess the scale of their impact”.
Johns Hopkins University also announced this week plans to cut more than 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration slashed $800m in grants to the renowned academic institution.
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