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University administrations are making decisions that irreparably damage their relationship with students, failing to protect them from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on their campuses.

Meanwhile, higher education administrators across the U.S. have positioned themselves as oppressors of their own students and staff, enabling President Donald Trump’s administration to deport those who have criticized Israel’s violence as well as anyone they choose to label as a national-security threat.

Academic institutions now appear willing to accept demands from the Trump administration and continue to ignore and punish student protesters’ calls to end the war in Gaza and the institutions’ complicity in the conflict.

Namely, Columbia University recently accepted a set of directives from the White House to begin negotiations for reinstating $400 million in federal funding that Trump removed earlier this month. As part of its concessions to Trump’s demands, Columbia also recently deployed 36 campus police officers with the authority to arrest students.

In response to reports of ICE’s presence on Columbia’s campus, the university issued a statement on March 10 confirming the reports and stating that it has adhered to the law and will continue to do so.

Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety outlined its own protocols for how campus employees should act if federal law enforcement, including ICE, enter campus. DPS Chief Craig Stone advised all administrative and front desk assistants at SU to notify a supervisor before complying, who will then refer DPS to authorize any exchanges.

Hannah Mesa | Design Editor

Columbia’s statement came shortly after federal immigration authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until December, on March 8. They said the arrest was based on a U.S. Department of State order to revoke his green card, according to the Associated Press.

Khalil served as a lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student organizations advocating for Palestinian liberation. Fellow protestors praised his skill in de-escalating tense situations, and he earned a reputation as a principled and strategic organizer on campus.

Allowing the Trump administration to target, arrest and threaten a key facilitator of communication between the university and protesters with deportation risks irrevocably reshaping the relationship between the university and its students.

By allowing Khalil’s removal, the administration is sending a clear message: they prefer giving up all opportunities for negotiation and communication with student protesters and comply with Trump’s agenda, rather than addressing the necessary changes.

CUAD shared a statement via Instagram on March 21 condemning Columbia’s behavior in this situation.

“Columbia’s refusal to divest from, and even doubling down on, the genocide of the Palestinian people these past 17 months has made its expected response to the Trump Administration’s ransom note incredibly clear,” the group wrote. “Columbia has no intention of defending its students or faculty from the government’s crackdown on Palestinian activism; instead, it actively joins hands with the fascist state to sell out its community.”

Last spring, Syracuse University students formed a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Shaw Quadrangle. The group called for SU to divest from Israel and support a ceasefire in Gaza.

In response to the encampment, local and national politicians used rhetoric that rings similar to Trump’s current stance on college protests; then-Congressman Brandon Williams told organizers to “get the hell out” on X, while Republican Senator Josh Hawley tweeted to “jail the lawbreakers” and “send the (National) Guard.”

On Monday, the Trump administration called Columbia’s response to government demands for tighter campus protest rules a “promising first step” toward regaining federal grants and contracts.

As college campuses are no longer “protected” from federal law enforcement inquiries, the new institutional compliance with ICE and the Trump administration fuels even greater tensions and widens the gap between colleges and their students.

On April 30, 2024, a group occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia, leading to a standoff with police and dozens taken into custody. A few days prior, over a hundred arrests at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California were reported along with the use of gas against people protesting for Gaza at Emory University.

These incidents combine to illustrate the disturbing escalations and crackdowns between student-led pro-Palestinian protests and law enforcement throughout the U.S.

Amandla Thomas-Johnson, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, told Al Jazeera that the administrative actions taken in the last year to punish peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters are helping the Trump administration target students more viciously.

Treating Khalil as a dangerous criminal shows a complete disregard for his humanity and a denial of his right to due process.

This conversation is no longer solely about the First Amendment or the distinction between public and private institutions; it’s about recognizing the willingness of educational institutions to put their own faculty and students at risk, allowing the government to strip students of their human rights in sacred learning environments.

On Wednesday, ICE agents detained Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts graduate student from Turkey. Ozturk was one of the authors of an opinion piece published last March in Tufts’ student newspaper, which criticized the university’s leadership for their response to protests and demands from student activists.

ICE has come after students and professors alike, including Ranjani Srinivasan, Momodou Taal, Rasha Alawieh and Yunseo Chung, leaving them scrambling to avoid unlawful deportation.

These students and professors were part of institutions that have preached diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility practices and human rights for years. Yet, they now willingly bend to Trump’s targeting of foreign nationals. This is a betrayal of the very values American higher education once claimed.

In the face of on-campus arrests by ICE, deportations and other threats to their community members, university administrations have become bystanders, remaining silent and complicit as the relationship between institutions and their students and faculty continues to deteriorate.

The question remains if it will ever be possible to reconcile these events, considering the harmful implications of these universities’ silent submissions.

This key moment ultimately signifies an irreversible fracture in the trust between universities and significant parts of their communities. It’s especially vital that students continue to hold their administrations accountable when human and student rights are at stake.

The Palestinian cause has exposed a deeper issue within the American higher education system. Now, the solution will require not just reform, but bravery, resistance and sacrifice.

Isabel Melendez-Rivera is a junior magazine, news and digital journalism major. She can be reached at iamelend@g.syr.edu

Published on March 26, 2025 at 11:45 pm
Contact Isabel: iamelend@syr.edu