Agents from the Department of Homeland Security conducted searches in two Columbia University students’ rooms on Thursday night, marking the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on some American universities.
Also marking that escalation: Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, said on Friday that the federal justice department would examine whether last year’s student protests at Columbia over Israel’s military strikes on Gaza violated terrorism laws. Blanche also said the justice department would examine whether Columbia’s handling of the demonstrations violated civil rights law as Donald Trump’s White House follows through on its self-stated “mission to end antisemitism in this country”.
