Columbia’s interim president responds after DHS searched two students’ rooms

Homeland Safety Brokers carried out searches on Thursday in a number of pupil rooms at Columbia College, which resulted in Katrina Armstrong, the interim president of the varsity, and shared that she was “deeply unhappy” in an replace of the campus neighborhood.

“I write deeply unhappy to tell you that tonight we had federal brokers from the Division of Homeland Safety in two college properties,” she wrote. “Nobody was arrested or held. No gadgets have been eliminated and no additional motion was taken.”

The DHS brokers served Columbia with two judicial searches signed by a federal Justice of the Peace choose, who met the necessities of the College for Authorized Enforcement to enter personal areas.

Particulars across the wished rooms and the aim of the search weren’t instantly obtainable.

Columbia College punishes college students who took over constructing throughout anti-Israeli protests

The interim president Katrina Armstrong of Columbia College shared on Thursday night in a letter to the varsity’s neighborhood that she was “deeply unhappy” by Homeland Safety Brokers on the lookout for two pupil rooms on campus. (AP)

“The college is obliged to adjust to the legislation,” Armstrong mentioned partially. “Our public security of the college was all the time current.”

She added that Columbia will “make each effort” to make sure that the campus and everyone seems to be protected, including that the varsity is “devoted to take care of the legislation” and expects “metropolis, state and federal companies to do the identical.”

“I perceive the immense stress that our neighborhood is beneath. Regardless of the unprecedented challenges, the Columbia College will stay a spot the place the pursuit of information is cherished and fiercely protected, the place the rule of legislation and the proper course of are revered and by no means apparent, and the place all members of our neighborhood are appreciated and may bloom which are the ideas.”

Columbia College was turned the other way up by anti-Israel protests for many of 2024, whereas college students and different contributors protested in opposition to Israel’s warfare in Gaza, requested by Hamas’ on October 7, 2023, assault on the Jewish state. (Getty Photos)

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The searches arrive lower than every week after anti-Israeli agitator Mahmoud Khalil, 30, was arrested by Ice in his college residence for his alleged involvement within the large anti-Israeli protests in Columbia final 12 months. He’s now in ice in Louisiana.

Who’s Mahmoud Khalil, the Anti-Israël Columbia College activist Ice arrested?

Khalil is a everlasting American resident, however is Palestinian and was raised in Syria. He’s married to an American citizen who’s at the moment eight months pregnant.

When he was arrested, DHS mentioned it was to guard American nationwide safety, and mentioned that Khalil “led actions that have been tailor-made to Hamas, a delegated terrorist group.”

Mahmoud Khalil speaks on April 29, 2024 in an anti-Israeli camp on the Columbia College Campus in New York. (AP Picture/Ted Shaffrey, File)

The lawyer of Khalil, Ramsi Kassem, mentioned that his shopper “was recognized, centered and detained” due to his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech. He mentioned that Khalil has no prison convictions, however “for some purpose is being held.”

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White Home Pers Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the Trump authorities’s choice to arrest Khalil and mentioned that he was spreading pro-Hamas propaganda flyers on campus.

Michael Dorgan from Fox Information Digital has contributed to this report.