Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his agency is scrutinizing demonstrators who occupied the Columbia University library reading room.
“We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library,” Rubio wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. “Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.”
About 80 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested Wednesday after disrupting the library as students were studying for finals. Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president, said in a statement that the institution called on the NYPD to respond to the protest after the demonstrators refused to identify themselves and leave the building.
“Disruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies,” Shipman said. “This is especially unacceptable while our students study and prepare for final exams.”
The protest and Rubio’s response come as the Trump administration has sought to crack down on campus antisemitism by punishing elite universities, including Columbia, through pulling billions in federal grants and contracts. More than 1,800 students have lost their visa statuses due to the administration’s crackdown on immigration and antisemitism.
Shipman, in a video statement, disavowed the protest Thursday morning as “utterly unacceptable.”
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Dillon B
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
