Eighty pro-Palestinian protesters were taken into custody at Columbia University after more than 100 demonstrators took over Butler Library as final exams were scheduled to begin, cops said Thursday.
Federal authorities are reviewing the visa status of all those taken into custody, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X.
Acting President Claire Shipman authorized the NYPD to enter campus after the swarm of masked protesters showed up at the library and forced their way inside.
Cops were seen escorting out dozens of protesters in zip ties who school officials said were not enrolled in the school and were trespassing.
Protestors at Broadway and W. 114th St. after some occupied the Butler Library on Wednesday. (Kerry Burke / New York Daily News)“We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library,” Rubio said on X. “Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.”
Shipman attributed the decision to allow NYPD officers on campus to the large number of protesters. Two Columbia security officers were injured as protesters forced their way inside the building.
“Requesting the presence of the NYPD is not the outcome we wanted, but it was absolutely necessary to secure the safety of our community,” Shipman wrote. “Disruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies; this is especially unacceptable while our students study and prepare for final exams.”
Videos on social media showed the activists, who wore masks, pushing through security at the entrance of Butler, the main campus library, shortly after 3 p.m., steps away from where students pitched a tent demonstration last year.
The protesters played drums and posted signs and stickers to free Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia grad who has been detained by federal immigration authorities.
Protestors in police custody as they are removed from the Butler Library on Wednesday. (Kerry Burke / New York Daily News)The main protest group on campus, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, on Wednesday reveled in their ability to pull off the disruption, despite a crackdown on student activists. Last month, an effort to repitch a tent encampment was averted after NBC News publicized their plans.
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“Students know that resisting genocide is their moral imperative, and history is on their side.”
Mayor Adams condemned the protesters by making a plea to their parents on live television Wednesday.
“Parents, if your children are going to Columbia campus and participate in this, I think you should reach out to them,” Adams said on NBC 4. “This is not what you do on the college campus, particularly going inside a library and protesting in this manner. We are in engagement with the college.”
Columbia finals begin on Friday.
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