The intense scrutiny that the Trump administration has placed on Columbia University for failing to address rising campus antisemitism escalated last week in several incidents that culminated in Department of Homeland Security agents raiding two dorm rooms on Thursday night and arresting one student, and another student having their visa revoked by the State Department. 

Leqaa Korda, a Palestinian from the West Bank who has been active in anti-Israel protests on campus, was arrested for allegedly overstaying her expired visa, which terminated in January 2022. Korda had previously been arrested for her involvement in the protests last year, according to DHS. 

A second student, Ranjani Srinivasan, a Ph.D. candidate from India, had her student visa revoked on March 5 for “advocating for violence and terrorism,” DHS said in a statement Friday. Srinivasan has already “self-deported” to Canada.

Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president, said in a statement that she was “heartbroken” by the raid, adding that “no one was arrested or detained,” which DHS contradicted with its statement. DHS agents served Columbia with two warrants to access the dorms, where Armstrong said “no items were removed, and no further action was taken.”

The search came as Columbia University faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration to address the antisemitic demonstrations that have roiled the campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. The university became the focal point of a national debate on free speech last week when immigration officers arrested and threatened to deport recent graduate Mahmoud Khalil over his role in anti-Israel activism on campus.

Earlier this month, the White House cut $400 million from Columbia’s federal funding over its failure to crack down on antisemitism. The Wall Street Journal reported the decision is under a 30-day review period. 

The Trump administration followed up last week with a series of preconditions and policy changes that Columbia must implement in order to restore the federal funding. Demands from the federal government — which the university must agree to by March 20 — include the termination of the University Judicial Board, the implementation of a mask ban and the granting of “full law enforcement authority, including arrest and removal of agitators” to public safety officers. The letter stated that Columbia has “fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

Also on Thursday, the university issued expulsions, multiyear suspensions and degree revocation for students who participated in the anti-Israel encampment and occupation of the university’s Hamilton Hall last spring, after the University Judicial Board found that the participants violated university policy. 

A university official told Jewish Insider that Columbia began the disciplinary process against these students immediately following the takeover of the campus building last April — which initially included interim suspensions of several participants. 

The official added that new revisions — including a designated rules administrator and the development of an Office of Rules Administration — will “allow the Rules process to operate more expeditiously” going forward. The university declined to provide the number of students impacted by these latest actions.

Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Hillel, called the disciplinary action “an important first step in righting the wrongs of the past year and a half.”

“I am grateful to the Rules Administrator and other members of the Administration for their roles in ensuring these cases were resolved,” Cohen wrote on X.