[News] DHS Agents Descend on Columbia’s Campus – Again – to Serve Two Warrants

[Anti-Imperialist News]

zeteo.com <https://zeteo.com/p/breaking-dhs-agents-descend-on-columbias>
BREAKING: DHS Agents Descend on Columbia’s Campus – Again – to Serve Two
Warrants
Prem Thakker
March 14, 2025
------------------------------
<https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff60475b1-7566-4cf5-8a79-d2fd584cb2a3_5500x3667.jpeg>*Protesters
rally on March 12, 2025, against the detention of Mahmoud Khalil in New
York City. Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters*

Less than a week after immigration authorities detained Columbia student
protest leader Mahmoud Khalil
<https://zeteo.com/p/breaking-dhs-detains-palestinian>, 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.”

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
<https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/03/11/nih-cancels-250-million-in-grants-to-columbia-as-part-of-400-million-trump-administration-cut/>it
cut from the school over what it claimed was the university’s “inaction” in
addressing antisemitism.

The Trump administration’s demands
<https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1900341950865133986> 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
   <https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1785185190815359313>. “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.”

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 <https://x.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1900336758589358185>.


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Columbia also expelled
<https://uaw.org/in-shocking-move-columbia-university-fires-union-president-one-day-before-contract-negotiations-begin-in-further-crackdown-on-free-speech/>
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
<https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-educations-office-civil-rights-sends-letters-60-universities-under-investigation-antisemitic-discrimination-and-harassment>
across the country.”

*Prem Thakker is Zeteo’s political reporter. Send tips via email
<Prem at zeteonews.com> or Signal (premthakker.35).*

*Check out more from Zeteo: *
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