White House: Columbia refusing to help ID those involved in campus antisemitism and are ‘pro-Hamas’

NEW YORK — The White House complains that Columbia University is refusing to help federal agents find people being sought as part of the government’s effort to deport participants in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, as the administration continues to punish the school by yanking federal research dollars.

Immigration enforcement agents on Saturday arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident and Palestinian activist who played a prominent part in anti-Israel protests at Columbia last year. He is now facing possible deportation.

US President Donald Trump has vowed additional arrests. In a briefing with reporters in Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says federal authorities have been “using intelligence” to identify other people involved in campus demonstrations critical of Israel that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas.”

She says Columbia has been given names and is refusing to help the Department of Homeland Security “to identify those individuals on campus.”

“As the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that,” Leavitt says.