The consequences may be severe for some of the anti-Israel activists who occupied and vandalized Columbia University’s Butler Library while students were studying for finals Wednesday night. That’s the message being relayed by both the federal government and Columbia’s president. 

Secretary Rubio announced on Wednesday night that the federal government was “reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals” involved in the protest. He added: “Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.” 

The protest erupted Wednesday afternoon when an estimated 100 activists affiliated with Columbia University Apartheid Divest stormed Columbia’s Lawrence A. Wein Reading Room and transformed it into a “Liberated Zone.” Videos of the protest shared online show the keffiyeh-clad students chanting anti-Israel slogans and vandalizing the library’s shelves with messages like, “COLUMBIA WILL BURN 4 THE MARTYRS.” 

The anti-Israel protesters clashed with public safety officers who instructed them to provide ID and leave the library or face arrest. The acting university president, Claire Shipman, eventually authorized the New York Police Department to enter the building and at least 75 protesters were arrested. 

The incident marks the largest mass arrest on Columbia’s campus since 109 protestors were detained last April for violently overtaking Hamilton Hall. The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, later opted to drop the charges against most of the individuals arrested in connection with that incident. 

This time around, however, it appears that members of the current administration have a keen interest in preventing that from happening. The assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, affirmed as much when she responded to a post on X that urged the Department of Justice to intervene should New York City fail to prosecute the demonstrators, with the message: “We @CivilRights are watching this very closely indeed.” 

A shift is also evident within Columbia University’s leadership. That first became clear with Ms. Shipman’s decision to call in the NYPD, a move that the school has historically avoided. In another unusual development, Ms. Shipman released a video of herself branding the protest as “utterly unacceptable” and chiding the participants for choosing to “make our institution a target” at a moment “when our international community feels particularly vulnerable.” She pledged that the disruptors would face “real consequences” that “reflect the severity of the actions.” 

Columbia’s Jewish community applauded Ms. Shipman for her decisive response. “Super proud of my university for taking swift action against the protesters earlier today,” a Jewish Columbia student, Eliana Goldin, shared. “Strong leadership means we can get back to doing what we do best: learning.”

Her sentiment was echoed by the director of Columbia and Barnard’s Hillel, Brian Cohen, who praised Ms. Shipman for her “strong words” and “decisive action to back them up.”