Dozens of protesters wearing red shirts that read “Jews say ICE off campus” gathered on Low Steps at around 12 p.m. Tuesday for a demonstration in support of Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, a Palestinian activist who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at his home, which is a University-owned building, Saturday night.

Columbia’s suspended chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace shared a joint post on Instagram with the organization Drop Hillel on Tuesday calling on students at “every campus in the country” to “shut down campuses” at noon on Tuesday.

“We are aware of a small protest on the steps of Low Library,” a University spokesperson wrote in a Tuesday afternoon statement to Spectator. “Our public safety and University delegates are monitoring for any disruptions to campus activity. Our focus is to preserve our core mission to teach, create, and advance knowledge.”

Protesters chanted “Say it loud, say it clear: Immigrants are welcome here” and “We want justice, you say how, ICE off campus now.”

Protesters also held signs which read “ICE off campus,” “Free Mahmoud,” and “Pigs are not kosher.”

“We insist that the University immediately institute a policy prohibiting University officials from reporting information about students or staff to ICE or complying with ICE investigations into Columbia students or staff in the absence of a judicial warrant,” one protester said.

Columbia is “refusing to help” the Department of Homeland Security identify individuals on campus “who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a White House press briefing on Tuesday.

The University published a web page, “Protocol for Potential Visits to Campus By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents,” on its Public Safety website last week, writing that ICE agents must have a judicial warrant to access nonpublic areas.

The page informs affiliates to not accept service of warrants from ICE and instead direct agents to Public Safety officers and the Office of the General Counsel. The page includes a clause asserting that “exigent circumstances”—which could include “the risk of imminent harm to people or property”—may allow for access to nonpublic areas without a warrant.

CU Jews for Ceasefire, Drop Hillel, and Columbia’s suspended chapter of JVP announced that a demonstration was “happening now” in a joint Instagram post at around 1 p.m. on Monday.

CU Jews for Ceasefire clarified in a statement to Spectator that the post was “not made with the knowledge that Drop Hillel would be co-posting,” and was deleted from the Jews for Ceasefire Instagram “upon members becoming aware of that fact.”

“Many Ceasefire members are active members of the Hillel community, and we certainly do not call for it to be ‘dropped,’” Jews for Ceasefire wrote in the statement.

Public Safety officers placed barricades around Low Steps at roughly 12 p.m., preventing demonstrators from walking up or down the steps. Protesters announced that the University had “essentially created a border” to stop students and faculty from sitting on Low Steps. Several protesters gathered in front of the barricades.

Volunteers from the Barnard-Columbia Discipline Defense Corps led a training on rights during confrontations with ICE agents. “No matter what you do, don’t open the door,” one law student volunteer told the group.

Carly, a School of International and Public Affairs student, who asked to be identified only by first name due to fears of doxxing, described the group as “deeply, deeply concerned Jewish students” and faculty not specifically affiliated with Columbia’s chapter of JVP or CU Jews for Ceasefire “who feel a deep sense of pain that these deportations are happening essentially in our name, and the University is doing absolutely nothing to protect our peers, and even going above and beyond that—actively harming our peers.”

She said that antisemitism has been “weaponized to the point where it is actively harming and endangering our campus.”

“We as Jewish students feel it is extremely important to correct that narrative,” she said. “ICE doesn’t keep Jewish students safe. NYPD doesn’t keep Jewish students safe.”

Interim University President Katrina Armstrong addressed the feelings of “distress” regarding the presence of ICE agents around campus in a Monday email to the Columbia community.

“I feel it too and am working with our team to manage the response,” she wrote.

Carly said that Columbia is “enabling” the Trump administration.

At around 3 p.m. demonstrators started writing letters to University administration. They covered the door of Low Library with the letters.

Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition wrote in a Monday Instagram post that students requested classes be moved to Zoom or canceled over “safety risks” posed by ICE officers around campus. Students shared an email template on Monday urging faculty to “take immediate action by modifying our class format—either by moving it online or canceling class for the week.”

University Provost Angela Olinto wrote in a Monday morning email to faculty obtained by Spectator that all classes and exams must continue in person as scheduled.

“We want to urge generosity and mutual patience as we navigate this together, especially as students study for their midterms,” Olinto wrote.

Khalil’s arrest has sparked condemnation from student groups across the University. CPSC released a Monday statement condemning Columbia’s “silence” on Khalil’s arrest. In her Monday email, Armstrong did not directly address his arrest.

A judge temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation in a Monday court order after his lawyer Amy Greer filed a petition on Sunday challenging his arrest. Greer wrote in a Monday evening update that Khalil is “healthy and his spirits are undaunted by his predicament.” Khalil is currently being held in a Louisiana detention center.

Carly told Spectator that, “We simply are here right now to correct this narrative that Mahmoud’s detainment is in any way making us any safer.”

Abby Stein, GS ’18, an Israeli-American author and rabbi, gave a speech about the University’s reaction to Khalil’s arrest.

“I’m gonna guess that the vast majority of my community members would come onto this campus and feel unsafe, not because there’s a Palestinian flag, not because of these beautiful keffiyehs, not because of any of you, but because of the militarization of a campus in the name of our safety, but it is literally endangering us,” Stein said. “What happened to Mahmoud is gonna happen to other students here at Columbia. It’s going to happen to students around the country, and it’s going to ultimately happen to all of us.”

“None of us are safe till we’re all safe,” she said.

Over 1,000 demonstrators gathered Monday afternoon at Foley Square—where Khalil was initially held after his Saturday detainment—to protest his arrest.

President Donald Trump called Khalil’s arrest “the first arrest of many to come” in a Monday post on Truth Social.

“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,” Trump wrote.

A protester at the Tuesday demonstration who requested anonymity under fear of disciplinary retribution said that “These actions are not making Jewish students safe.”

Carly said that “We as Jewish students are essentially asking Columbia University to have a spine, have a backbone.”

Protesters dispersed from Low Steps at around 5 p.m.