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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">BREAKING: DHS Agents Descend on Columbia’s Campus – Again – to Serve Two Warrants</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Prem Thakker</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">March 14, 2025</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div dir="auto"><div><a target="_blank" href="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" rel=""><div><span><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,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" width="504" height="336" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;"></span></div></a><em>Protesters rally on March 12, 2025, against the detention of Mahmoud Khalil in New York City. Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters</em></div><p><span>Less than a week after immigration authorities detained Columbia student protest leader </span><a href="https://zeteo.com/p/breaking-dhs-detains-palestinian" rel="">Mahmoud Khalil</a><span>, Department of Homeland Security agents were back on the university’s campus to serve two search warrants.</span></p><p>“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.</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Armstrong wrote that the
university was obligated to comply with the warrants, and that
“University Public Safety was present at all times.”</p><p>“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.”</p><p><span>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 </span><a href="https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/03/11/nih-cancels-250-million-in-grants-to-columbia-as-part-of-400-million-trump-administration-cut/" rel="">$400 million in grant funding </a><span>it cut from the school over what it claimed was the university’s “inaction” in addressing antisemitism.</span></p><p><span>The Trump administration’s </span><a href="https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1900341950865133986" rel="">demands</a><span> included, among other things:</span></p><ul><li><p><span>Disciplining students involved in last year's protest at Hamilton Hall, when students occupied the building and renamed it </span><a href="https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1785185190815359313" rel="">Hind's Hall</a><span>. “Meaningful discipline means expulsion or multi-year suspension,” the administration emphasized</span></p></li><li><p><span>Centralizing </span><em>all</em><span>
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</span></p></li><li><p>“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</p></li><li><p>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”</p></li><li><p>Implementing “comprehensive admissions reform”</p></li><li><p>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</p></li></ul><p>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.”</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><span>At least 22 students were impacted by the disciplinary processes, according to </span><a href="https://x.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1900336758589358185" rel="">student organizers</a><span>. </span></p><p><a href="https://zeteo.com/p/breaking-dhs-agents-descend-on-columbias?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share" rel=""><span>Share</span></a></p><p><span>Columbia also </span><a href="https://uaw.org/in-shocking-move-columbia-university-fires-union-president-one-day-before-contract-negotiations-begin-in-further-crackdown-on-free-speech/" rel="">expelled</a><span>
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.</span></p><p><span>“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 </span><a href="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" rel="">60 other universities</a><span> across the country.”</span></p><p><em><strong>Prem Thakker</strong><span> is </span><strong>Zeteo’s</strong><span> political reporter. Send tips via </span><a href="mailto:Prem@zeteonews.com" rel="">email</a><span> or Signal (premthakker.35).</span></em></p><p><em><strong>Check out more from Zeteo:</strong><span> </span></em></p></div></div></div>
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