Columbia Protest: Resignation, Settlement, and ICE Arrest

The Columbia protests began on April 17, 2024, when students built a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the South Lawn to demand that the university divest from companies tied to Israel’s military operations. Over the next two weeks, the New York Police Department cleared the campus twice, arresting more than 200 people, and protesters briefly occupied Hamilton Hall. The fallout toppled Columbia’s president, led to the discipline of more than 70 students, cost the university access to roughly $400 million in federal funding before it signed a $221 million settlement with the Trump administration, drew ICE into the lives of two Columbia students, and inspired encampments at dozens of other universities.

What Students Were Demanding

The encampment was organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student coalition that had submitted a formal divestment proposal to the university’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing in December 2023. The core demand was that Columbia pull its endowment investments out of companies the coalition said profited from Israel’s military occupation, settlement construction, and surveillance infrastructure. The proposal named Caterpillar, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, among others.¹

Students also wanted full disclosure of endowment holdings and opposed Columbia’s planned Global Center in Tel Aviv.¹ Columbia manages a $13.6 billion endowment and had previously divested from tobacco, private prisons, thermal coal, and fossil fuels, but the proposal regarding Israel had not advanced when the tents went up.²

The First NYPD Raid

The encampment went up the same morning Columbia President Minouche Shafik testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about antisemitism on campus. Shafik told the committee that calls for the genocide of Jewish people would violate Columbia’s policies, but Chair Virginia Foxx and Representative Elise Stefanik called her testimony “catastrophic.”³ Faculty later faulted her for appearing to promise the committee she would fire professors whose statements were deemed antisemitic.⁴

The next day, April 18, Shafik authorized the NYPD to clear the lawn. Officers in riot gear arrested 108 people, all charged with trespassing; two also faced charges of obstruction of governmental administration.⁵ The University Senate’s executive committee had unanimously opposed calling in police.⁶ Among those arrested was Isra Hirsi, daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar, who was then suspended by Barnard College.⁷

Students immediately rebuilt a second encampment on the west side of the South Lawn. The arrests accelerated the movement rather than ending it.

Hamilton Hall and the Second Raid

Over the following days, the standoff hardened. More than 100 Columbia and Barnard faculty rallied on Low Steps on April 22 demanding the suspensions be expunged.⁸ On April 23, House Speaker Mike Johnson held a press conference on campus calling for Shafik to resign. On April 29, Shafik publicly announced that Columbia “will not divest from Israel” and gave students on the lawn until 2 p.m. to leave. The encampment voted to stay.⁹

Shortly after midnight on April 30, protesters escalated by occupying Hamilton Hall, barricading entrances with furniture and zip ties.⁹ Students renamed it “Hind’s Hall” in honor of a Palestinian child killed in Gaza. That evening, at Shafik’s request, hundreds of NYPD officers entered the campus. Officers from the Strategic Response Group climbed into Hamilton Hall through a second-story window using an armored vehicle with a mechanized drawbridge. The university said those occupying the building were “led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University.”¹⁰ By 11:40 p.m., Hamilton Hall and the South Lawn encampment had both been cleared, with 109 arrests. On May 3, the NYPD disclosed that an officer had accidentally discharged a firearm during the Hamilton Hall operation.⁶

Together, the two raids were the largest mass arrests at Columbia since 1968.⁹

What Happened to the Criminal Cases

Most of the criminal charges collapsed. Of the 46 people arrested during the Hamilton Hall occupation, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office dismissed charges against 31, citing a lack of evidence. Prosecutors said covered-up surveillance cameras and masked protesters had made identification difficult. Prosecutors offered conditional dismissals to 14 other defendants on the condition they avoid arrest for six months; all 14 refused the offer.¹¹ The DA’s office said it would continue to pursue cases involving assaults on police.¹²

The most prominent non-student case involved James Carlson, an attorney with no Columbia affiliation, who was indicted on charges of criminal mischief and arson for burning an Israeli flag on April 20, 2024, and separately arraigned for trespassing during the Hamilton Hall occupation. Carlson pleaded not guilty. As of late 2024, both cases remained pending.¹³

Student Discipline on Campus

Separate from the criminal cases, Columbia pursued its own disciplinary track. The University Judicial Board handed down suspensions ranging from one to three years, expulsions, probation, and in some cases degree revocations.¹⁴ By early 2025, the university reported disciplining more than 70 students, most receiving two-year suspensions or expulsions.¹⁵ Columbia University Apartheid Divest said nearly 80 students had been told they were suspended or expelled, calling the sanctions unprecedented.

Suspended students were required to submit apologies as a condition of readmission; some publicly refused.¹⁴ They lost access to campus libraries, faculty mentors, healthcare, and paid work.¹⁶ Parents of disciplined students accused the administration of creating a “Palestine exception” to free speech and assembly. The university maintained that “disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.”

Shafik Loses the Faculty, Then Resigns

The University Senate voted 68 to 3 on April 26 to condemn the administration’s decision to use the NYPD.⁶ On May 16, 2024, the Columbia Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a vote of no confidence in Shafik by a margin of 65% to 29%, with 6% abstaining, out of 709 faculty voting. The resolution, from the Columbia chapter of the AAUP, condemned her “violation of the fundamental requirements of academic freedom and shared governance” and her “unprecedented assault on students’ rights.”¹⁷ Faculty specifically objected to her authorizing police without consulting the senate, her description of students as a “clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the University,” and her promises to Congress about firing faculty.¹⁸

On August 14, 2024, Shafik resigned. She had served 13 months and 13 days, the shortest presidential tenure in Columbia’s history since 1801.³ In her resignation letter, she wrote that “my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”¹⁹ Katrina Armstrong, chief executive of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, was named interim president. Armstrong stepped down on March 28, 2025, after guiding the university through the early stages of a federal funding crisis, replaced by trustee and journalist Claire Shipman as acting president.²⁰

The $221 Million Federal Settlement

In March 2025, the Trump administration moved against Columbia directly. On March 7, a joint federal task force comprising the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, and General Services Administration announced the cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts, citing the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The task force warned that the $400 million was only an “initial cancellation” and that Columbia held more than $5 billion in total federal grant commitments.²¹ The action followed an executive order Trump signed in January 2025 directing the DOJ to investigate “anti-Jewish racism” at universities.²²

On May 22, 2025, HHS and the Department of Education jointly issued a formal Notice of Violation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, documenting a pattern of harassment against Jewish students that included swastikas found in academic buildings, physical intimidation, and what investigators called the administration’s “deliberate indifference” to the hostile environment.²³

On July 23, 2025, Columbia reached a resolution agreement with the federal government. The university agreed to pay $200 million over three years plus $21 million to settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation into alleged civil rights violations against Jewish employees.²⁴ In exchange, access to billions in federal research funding was restored.²⁵

The non-financial terms reached deep into campus life. Columbia agreed to overhaul its student disciplinary process, apply a federally endorsed definition of antisemitism to teaching and disciplinary committees, review its Middle East curriculum to ensure it is “comprehensive and balanced,” appoint new faculty to the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, end programs the administration characterized as promoting “unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes,” implement new questioning for prospective international students, and provide the government with information on disciplinary actions involving student-visa holders.²⁶ An independent resolution monitor, Charles J. Cooper, was appointed to oversee compliance.²⁴ The agreement did not include an admission of wrongdoing.

New Rules for Protest on Campus

Columbia revised its approach to campus dissent in parallel with the federal deal. Protests inside and immediately outside academic buildings were effectively banned.²⁰ Campus police were granted new arrest powers, and the university hired 36 special officers authorized to remove individuals from campus or make arrests. Protesters are now required to present university identification on request; wearing masks to conceal identity during policy violations or illegal acts is prohibited, with exceptions for religious or medical reasons.²⁷

The University Judicial Board was placed under the Office of the Provost, and students were removed from its panels, which are now restricted to faculty and administrators.²⁷ Columbia University Apartheid Divest was declared an unrecognized organization; the university said it “has not, and will not, recognize or meet” with the group.²⁸

ICE and the Khalil Case

The protest’s aftermath reached into immigration enforcement in March 2025, when ICE agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student who had been the lead negotiator for the encampment protesters, outside his university-owned apartment building.²⁹ Federal agents said they were revoking both his student visa and his green card. The Department of Homeland Security accused Khalil of having “led activities aligned to Hamas,” though no criminal charges were filed.³⁰ President Trump publicly labeled Khalil a “radical foreign pro-Hamas student” and said his arrest was “the first of many to come.”

Khalil was held in New Jersey, then transferred to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, where he remained for 104 days before being released in June 2025.³¹ His lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition arguing the detention was discriminatory, retaliatory, and a violation of his First and Fifth Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ordered that Khalil could not be removed from the United States without further court authorization.²⁹

In January 2026, a federal court reversed a lower court ruling that had granted Khalil bail. On May 22, 2026, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 6-5 decision, declined to rehear the case, opening the door for the government to re-detain him.³¹ The Board of Immigration Appeals issued a final administrative removal order against him in April 2026, alleging he misrepresented information on his green card application, an accusation he denies.³² His attorneys are taking the case to the Supreme Court.³³

A second Columbia student, Elmina “Ellie” Aghayeva, a senior from Azerbaijan, was detained from her university-owned apartment on February 26, 2026, by five plainclothes ICE agents who identified themselves as police searching for a “missing child.” The Manhattan Borough President alleged the agents used a fabricated missing persons bulletin.³⁴ DHS said Aghayeva’s student visa had been terminated in 2016 for failing to attend classes, and her detention was unrelated to the protests.³⁵ She was released the same afternoon following a call between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Trump. Columbia responded by requiring a judicial warrant for law enforcement to access non-public areas of campus.³⁶

Civil Lawsuits

The protests generated several civil cases. In February 2025, three Columbia graduate students sued the university alleging Title VI violations, negligence, breach of contract, and unlawful eviction stemming from the disciplinary response. The case was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on May 9, 2025, before Columbia filed a response; no public reason was given.³⁷ Separately, Mahmoud Khalil and seven anonymous students sued Columbia in March 2025 to prevent the university from disclosing their private disciplinary records to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, arguing the committee’s demands were intended to chill protected speech.³⁸ In an earlier matter, a student accused of spraying a foul-smelling substance at a January 2024 protest sued Columbia for biased misconduct proceedings and reached a $395,000 settlement; the student’s suspension was reduced to conditional probation.³⁹

Protests Spread Across the Country

The Columbia encampment was the spark for a nationwide movement. After the April 18 police raid, Yale students pitched tents the following morning, and a Zoom call the same day connected more than 200 students from dozens of colleges planning to replicate the Columbia action.⁴⁰ Within days, encampments appeared at Yale, Northeastern, the University of Texas at Austin, Emory, Emerson College, George Washington University, NYU, and USC, among others.⁴¹

The encampments shared a common set of demands: divestment from companies linked to Israel’s operations in Gaza, academic boycotts of Israeli institutions, and a formal call for a ceasefire. Police responses often followed a similar pattern, with administrators citing trespassing or the creation of an intimidating environment. At the University of Texas at Austin, state troopers on horseback were deployed; at Emory, a professor was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed in a widely shared video.⁴¹

Where Things Stand

Columbia’s position on divestment has not changed. The university maintains it will not divest from companies tied to Israel. On April 30, 2026, over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters marched from Columbia to the City College of New York to mark the two-year anniversary of the encampment clearance.⁴² On January 25, 2026, the Board of Trustees unanimously selected Jennifer L. Mnookin, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as Columbia’s next permanent president.⁴³ Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation case is headed to the Supreme Court, and the independent monitor appointed under the federal settlement continues to oversee Columbia’s compliance with the $221 million deal.²⁴

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Columbia University. Presidential Search News and Announcements