(CNN) — The Trump administration is tightening its grip on efforts to quash pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, even as a protest over the detention of activist Mahmoud Khalil flared at the president’s New York City residence and resistance efforts continue in the courts and beyond.
Khalil, a Palestinian refugee whose green card was revoked over his involvement with demonstrations last spring at Columbia University in New York City, remains in ICE custody in Louisiana.
Trump, whose envoy is trying to negotiate an extension to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, boasted this week on social media his administration had “proudly apprehended” Khalil, adding those who “support terrorism … are not welcome here.”
But the government’s case has “no basis in law,” Khalil’s lawyer told CNN on Friday.
“They kidnapped this man, this young student, father-to-be … based on an accusation that he has the wrong political ideas, and he has expressed them,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told Sara Sidner.
“It’s an attempt to bully the universities into submission. It’s an attempt to bully and intimidate students from speaking out, faculty from speaking out, into being quiet and going with the administration’s program.”
Still, protests are expected to continue Friday at Columbia University, where administrators now face a raft of challenges, from federal agents on campus and an ultimatum over federal funding, to disciplining some who participated in protests last spring and defending against a lawsuit seeking to block the school’s cooperation with a US House probe.
The US Justice Department is now also investigating whether those involved in last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia violated federal anti-terrorism laws, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Friday.
The DOJ is looking into “whether Columbia’s handling of earlier instances violated civil rights laws that included terrorism crimes,” Blanche told department employees. “This is long overdue.”
The department will investigate whether Columbia University was harboring or concealing immigrants who are in the US illegally, Blanche said.
Columbia faces new federal ultimatum
Columbia students are reeling from the presence of federal agents on campus. The university’s interim president was “heartbroken” to announce Department of Homeland Security agents had served two warrants to search two student rooms, she said late Thursday.
“No one was arrested or detained. No items were removed, and no further action was taken,” Katrina Armstrong said in an email that also acknowledged “the immense stress our community is under.”
“Columbia continues to make every effort to ensure that our campus, students, faculty, and staff are safe,” she said. “Columbia is committed to upholding the law, and we expect city, state, and federal agencies to do the same.”
Homeland Security confirmed Friday that ICE agents arrested a second Columbia University student, citing immigration violations related to overstaying her visa.
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, had her visa terminated in January 2022 for lack of attendance and was arrested by local law enforcement last year for her involvement in what the department has described as “pro-Hamas protests” at Columbia University.
She was taken into custody on Thursday, according to DHS, although it’s unclear where she was arrested. A separate Columbia student has self-deported to Canada, the agency said.
The Department of Education and other federal agencies also on Thursday sent a joint letter to Columbia administrators outlining preconditions for “formal negotiations regarding Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government.”
The actions include adopting the administration’s definition of “antisemitism,” reforming the university’s admissions process and eliminating the University Judicial Board, which handles disciplinary actions against those who violate the university’s code of conduct, according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN.
The Ivy League school was given a week to comply with Trump administration demands, which followed its threat a week ago to pull $400 million in grants and contracts from the university over its handling of antisemitism on campus.
Columbia announced Thursday it has expelled, suspended or temporarily revoked the degrees of students who during April pro-Palestinian demonstrations barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall.
Students sue over demands for their records
Meanwhile, Khalil and seven other students on Thursday sued Columbia, Barnard College and the House Committee on Education and Workforce to block the panel’s demands that the universities share school and disciplinary records of “hundreds of students.”
The lawsuit, backed by the Council on American Islamic Relations, argues that the committee’s “political agenda is apparent” and accuses the government of weaponizing “accusations of antisemitism to attack ideas it ideologically opposes.”
The federal lawsuit, along with the other developments at Columbia, comes mere days after the Department of Homeland Security said it was working to identify students involved in protests like those at the school across dozens of US colleges. And Trump in January signed an executive order promising to “combat antisemitism” on college campuses by potentially revoking visas and directing universities to “monitor” and “report” on international students and staff.
Building on a tradition of student-led anti-war protests at Columbia, a coalition of students last spring established encampments, held rallies and staged “teach-ins” on campus to protest the war in Gaza. The movement also was tainted by instances of rampant antisemitism, which Khalil disavowed.
“There is, of course, no place for antisemitism,” he told CNN in April. “What we are witnessing is anti-Palestinian sentiment that’s taking different forms and antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism (are) some of these forms.”
Khalil was arrested Saturday “in support of Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism,” the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at a news briefing Tuesday accused Khalil of organizing protests that “distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, flyers with the logo of Hamas.”
His legal team, however, has noted Leavitt’s allegations do not mirror the government’s argument in court.
“The White House spokesperson says a lot of things that are unsubstantiated,” Ramzi Kassem, founding director of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility Clinic at City University of New York Law School, told reporters after a Wednesday hearing on Khalil’s detention.
“I would pay attention to what they actually put forward in court,” he said.
“It’s their disagreement with his viewpoint, not any remote scintilla of security threat that’s driving this,” added Baher Azmy, another attorney for Khalil. “It’s about repression, not about security.”
Jewish protesters swarm Trump Tower
But not all Jewish Americans are happy with the administration’s actions. Nearly a hundred people were arrested Thursday after storming Trump Tower in Manhattan to demand the release of Khalil and speak out against his detention.
The protest, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, saw demonstrators wearing shirts that read, “Not in Our Name,” and unfurling banners that read, “Jews Say Do Not Comply.”
The demonstration was timed to mark the Jewish holiday Purim, which honors Queen Esther, “who used her voice to speak out and demand that the king not commit genocide,” said an organizer who livestreamed the event.
“We know our history and we are here to say, ‘Never again,’” Jewish Voice for Peace spokesperson Sonya Meyerson-Knox later told CNN of the protest.
“I am here in adherence to what my ancestors taught me because I have been taught what happens when authoritarian regimes start scapegoating people,” Meyerson-Knox said. “And I know that if we don’t speak up today, we will not be able to speak up.”
CNN’s Karina Tsui, Elizabeth Hartfield, Priscilla Alvarez, Gloria Pazmino, Jeff Winter and Omar Jimenez contributed to this report.
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