ted byfield

2025-03-09 columbia vs feds timeline

10 min read

This is a quick-and-dirty / work-in-progress-until-it-isn’t timeline of events during 2025 leading up to (and to a lesser degree following) Trump & Co.’s decision to pull $400M in federal funding from Columbia University.

Current

Jan 19: reports that University Judicial Board held hearings over winter break

  • Columbia Spectator (link)
  • NY Post (link)

Jan 21: two Barnard students disrupt first day of “History of Modern Israel” course

Jan 28: CU interim President Katrina Armstrong issues a statement on “Our Unwavering Commitment to the Core Mission and Principles that Define Us”

Jan 29: Trump announcement of “additional measures to combat anti-semitism”

  • White House (link) — note the 60-day deadline to federal agencies

Feb 10: CU’s Armstrong and other leaders have been meeting with Congressional leaders

Feb 13: CU’s Armstrong issues a “meeting this moment” statement

Feb 13: House Committee on Education and the Workforce letter to CU about the university’s handling of antisemitic incidents on campus

Feb 14: US DoE issues “Dear Colleague” letter

  • Daily Pennsylvanian (link)
  • DoE (PDF)

Feb 17: CU president Armstrong “met with Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Kisch”

  • Columbia Spectator (link)
  • Kish (via xitter: 1, 2)

Feb 21: Barnard expels the two students

  • Columbia Spectator (link)

Feb 26: Barnard occupation in support of expelled students

Feb 27: Barnard says no promises of amnesty; planned protest

Feb 27: pro-Israel advocates call for CU’s funding to be pulled

Mar 01(?): CU issues “Protocol for Potential Visits to Campus By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents”

Mar 03: Trump admin threatens to pull more than $50 million in fed contracts from CU

  • StopAntisemitism (link)

Mar 04: ex Israeli PM Naftali Bennett speaks at CU in event co-sponsored by CU/BC Hillel, SIPA’s IGP, and the Kraft Center for Jewish Student; protest outside co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace and Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition. (Six days later, Bennett ‘joked’ about students criticizing his appearance at Harvard, “I think we’ll just give them a pager.”)

  • Columbia Spectator (link)
  • Harvard Crimson (link)

Mar 06: According to Zeteo, Kahlil’s ID was deactivated (see Mar 07, Zereo).

Mar 06:

  • 2:30pm: Canary Mission tweets “🚨 SUSPECTED FOREIGN NATIONAL ALERT 🚨 Mahmoud Khalil, allegedly from Syria, is a grad student at Columbia. Khalil appeared to be the lead negotiator for the Barnard College library occupation yesterday. He took the same role at the Columbia encampment & was suspended,” with a video: “Mahmoud Khalil, allegedly from Syria, is a grad student at Columbia. Khalil appeared to be the lead negotiator for the Barnard College library occupation”

  • 5:30pm: US Sec State Marco Rubio tweets “Those who support designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, threaten our national security. The United States has zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorists. Violators of U.S. law — including international students — face visa denial or revocation, and deportation.

  • 5:47pm: David Lederer tweets “Meet Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student known to have been on a foreign visa last year. He recently helped illegally take over a library building and distribute Hamas propaganda.”

  • 6:39pm: CU prof Shai Davidai tweets “Thank you for your strong statements. Now we want to see strong action. Illegally taking over a college in which you are not even enrolled and distributing terrorist propaganda should be a deportable offense, no? Because that’s what Mahmoud Khalil from @ColumbiaSJP did yesterday at @BarnardCollege

Mar 07: Report that Kahlil “appealed to [CU] for protection from harassment and possibly ICE agents one day before” his arrest, saying in an email to Armostrong, “Since yesterday, I have been subjected to a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign led by Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai [see above, Mar 06] and* David Lederer [see above, Mar 06] who, among others, have labeled me a security threat and called for my deportation.” Also, “On Thursday, March 6, Khalil emailed Gerald Lewis, the vice president of Columbia Public Safety, and cc’d Armstrong regarding the deactivation of his university ID.” The report also notes “several reports of ICE being spotted on campus throughout the week.”

Mar 07: Trump admin pulls $400M in fed contracts etc from Columbia.

  • Columbia Spectator (link)

Mar 07: March 9, 2025 at 10:49 AM, “post malone ergo propter malone’ on bsky reproduces a tweet(?) purportedly from* “two days ago” by “@CampusJewHate,” saying: “Mahmoud Khalil, the foreign student who is one of the leading agitators on campus, is still causing trouble. He seems to be present at every encampment and every sit-in or building takeover. Yesterday, he managed to get onto campus despite not being the current student. Here he is confronted by the @Columbia’s Public Safety officer during a rally against NYPD. A day before that he was at @BarnardCollege orchestrating illegal takeover of the building. Secretary Rubio (@SecRubio), please revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s visa! DeportMahmoudKhalil

Mar 07: “A Declaration of William P. Joyce,” Acting Field Office Director in the New York City Field Office of ICE’s NY Enforcement and Removal Operations, attests that Mahmoud Khalil was booked into a detention facility in Newark one or more hours before his habeas petition was filed.

Mar 08: CU pres Armstrong knuckles under

  • Columbia Spectator (link)

Mar 09: DHS arrests student activist at CU

  • DropSite News (link)
  • Reuters (link)
  • Zeteo’s detailed account (link)

Mar 09: US Sec State Marco Rubio tweets “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported”

Mar 10: Reports that ICE “also visited a second international student at Columbia over the weekend and attempted to take her into custody but were prevented from entering the apartment, according to() a union representing the student,” Student Workers of Columbia

Mar 10 (1:10pm): Trump takes credit for Kahlil’s arrest, “the first arrest of many to come”

Mar 10 (2:58pm): Mayor Adams implies Khalil was armed: “If he has a gun, he needs to go.”

Mar 10: SDNY Judge Jesse Furman blocks efforts to deport Kahlil and orders his appearance in court the next day

  • CourtListener (link)
  • detailed analysis by Chris Geidner / Law Dork (link)

Mar 10 (x<5:30pm): ‪“Jews For Racial & Economic Justice” posts w/ photos of “Columbia/Barnard faculty, Jewish community leaders, immigrant advocates, and rabbis are demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE custody.’

Mar 10: The (formerly Jewish Daily) Forward cites “Ross Glick, a pro-Israel activist who previously shared a list of campus protesters with federal immigration authorities, said that he was in Washington, D.C., for meetings with members of Congress during the Barnard library demonstration and discussed Khalil with aides to Sens. Ted Cruz and John Fetterman who promised to “escalate” the issue. He said that some members of Columbia’s board had also reported Khalil to officials.” (emph added)

Mar 13: Maryam Alwan offers a personal perspective on Kahlil and event.

  • Columbia Spectator (link)

Mar 13: CU issued the following announcement: “Today, the Columbia University Judicial Board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring. With respect to other events taking place last spring, the UJB’s determinations recognized previously imposed disciplinary action. The return of suspended students will be overseen by Columbia’s University Life Office. Columbia is committed to enforcing the University’s Rules and Policies and improving our disciplinary processes.”

Mar 13: A letter to CU co-signed by the GSA, DoE, and HHS imposed several “preconditions for formal negotiations regarding CU’s continued financial relationship” with the feds, requiring “expulsion or multi-year suspension” for students who occupied Hamilton Hall, abolition of the University Judicial Board and “centraliz[ation of] all disciplinary processes under the Office of the President,”time, place, and manner” restrictions “to prevent disruption of teaching, research, and campus life,” a ban on all masks except those worn for religious or health reasons, restrictions and punishments for “unrecognized” groups, “promulgat[ion of] a definition of antisemitism including “Anti-‘Zionist’ discrimination against Jews in areas unrelated to Israel or Middle East,” giving CU security “full law enforcement authority,” placing the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership,” and a “comprehensive admissions reform.”

  • DoJ (via Bsky)
  • my March 4 predictions were 🎯 down to the detail of receivership (link)

Mar 13: Interesting details about Elvin Hernandez, one of the ICE officers who arrested Kahlil — and was honored by name by Trump at the State of the Union in 2019

Mar 13: Columbia “expelled and fired Grant Miner, President of UAW Local 2710, which represents thousands of Columbia student workers. The firing comes one day before contract negotiations were set to open with the University.”

Mar 14: DHS released the following statement: “VIDEO: Columbia University Student Whose Visa Was Revoked for Supporting Hamas and Terrorist Activities Used CBP Home App to Self- Deport Release Date: March 14, 2025 Another student who supported Hamas was arrested by ICE HSI for overstaying her student visa. WASHINGTON - Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that one of the Columbia students who had her student visa revoked for advocating for violence and terrorism self-deported using the CBP Home App and ICE arrested a Palestinian student for overstaying her expired F-1 visa. Ranjani Srinivasan, a citizen and national of India, entered the United States on a F-1 student visa as doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University. Srinivasan was involved in activities supporting Hammas, a terrorist organization. On March 5, 2025, the Department of State revoked her visa. The Department of Homeland Security has obtained video footage of her using the CBP Home App to self-deport on March 11. Another student Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from West Bank, was arrested by ICE HSI Newark officers for overstaying her expired F-1 student visa. Her visa terminated on January 26, 2022, for lack of attendance. Previously, in April 2024 Kordia was arrested for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City. The below statement is attributable to Secretary Noem: “It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. I am glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport.”

Mar 14: The Guardian reports that Betar US, “a far-right group that claimed credit for the arrest of a Palestinian activist and permanent US resident who the Trump administration is seeking to deport claims it has submitted ‘thousands of names’ for similar treatment.” Events above strongly suggest that Kahlil’s arrest stemmed from a similar arrangement, i.e., Betar guiding Trump and ICE operatives at least.

Older context
  • 2024-11-23: “Zionist org preps list of foreign pro-Hamas students, hoping Trump will deport them” (NYPost)

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