Interim University President Katrina Armstrong emailed the Columbia community on Monday and addressed the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers near campus.

“I understand the distress that many of you are feeling about the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the streets around campus,” Armstrong wrote in her email. “I feel it too and am working with our team to manage the response.”

On Saturday, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, was detained by ICE agents at his residence, a University-owned building, according to Khalil’s lawyer. Khalil was a lead negotiator in the April 2024 “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in April 2024. Armstrong did not directly mention Khalil’s arrest in her email.

Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition and several other student organizations have called on the University to publicly denounce the arrest.

Armstrong emphasized that the University would follow the law “as has always been the case,” but noted that “rumors suggesting that any member of Columbia leadership requested the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on or near campus are false.”

Armstrong wrote that “law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including residential University buildings.”

A web page addressing the presence of ICE officers on campus titled “Protocol for Potential Visits to Campus By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents” was added between March 5 and March 6, according to the digital internet archive Wayback Machine, to the Public Safety website.

On the web page, the University notes that “exigent circumstances” may allow ICE agents to enter University buildings without a warrant.

A Monday email sent to the Barnard community by Kelli Murray, executive vice president for strategy and chief administrative officer, stated that ICE officers need to present judicial warrants and send requests to the Office of the General Counsel to access Barnard’s campus. The email did not include language regarding “exigent circumstances” in which ICE could enter without a warrant.

Prior to Monday’s email, Armstrong had not publicly addressed the presence of ICE officers around campus. In a 2016 announcement to the Columbia community almost two weeks after Trump’s first election victory, then-Provost John Coatsworth noted that “the University will neither allow immigration officials on our campuses without a warrant, nor share information on the immigration status of undocumented students with those officials unless required by subpoena or court order, or authorized by a student.” Then-University President Lee Bollinger, Law ’71, joined more than 400 presidents in signing a December 2016 letter calling for the preservation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

[Read more: Once an outspoken supporter of DACA, Columbia has yet to publicly comment on Trump’s mass deportations]

Armstrong described the University as being in a “challenging moment” and restated the values of the University: “freedom of expression, open inquiry, a wide range of perspectives, and respectful debate,” while likening them to those of the United States.

“These are Columbia’s values, they are America’s values, they are essential to a functioning democracy, and we will fight for them,” Armstrong wrote. “We do this for our students and for our future.”

Armstrong added that the University administration is “engaged with several federal agencies and are doing all we can to be responsive to their legitimate concerns and to take corrective action, under the law, to restore funding.”

The Trump administration announced the immediate cancellation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia in a Friday news release, with Leo Terrell, the head of the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, writing in the news release that these cuts were “only the beginning.”

According to ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System, Khalil has been moved to a detention facility in Louisiana following his arrest. A petition demanding his release has over 1.6 million signatures as of Monday evening.

ICE did not respond to Spectator’s request for comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not directly respond to Spectator’s request for comment regarding Khalil’s move and instead referred Spectator to a previous statement confirming Khalil’s arrest.

In a Monday post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump described Khalil as a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student.” Khalil is a lawful permanent resident, according to his lawyer.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump wrote. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it. Many are not students, they are paid agitators.”

Armstrong also stressed in her email the University’s deep commitment to freedom of speech, calling it “a fundamental value” that should be upheld by the University community and emphasized the need for people to “treat one another with respect” in a discrimination-free environment.

While highlighting how proud she was of the University’s “unwavering commitment to excellence” and “historic and ongoing contributions to the United States and the world,” Armstrong additionally asked the University community for their “continued support and patience” and noted that “the only way to navigate this moment is together, as a united community.”

“All eyes are on Columbia at present,” Armstrong wrote. “It falls to us to ensure our University, and indeed the values of higher education more broadly, survive and thrive.”