Columbia University appears to have removed a webpage giving guidance to undocumented applicants from their admissions website.
The move comes against a wider backdrop of capitulations from the Ivy League university, which has spent the last month bending over backward to appease the Trump administration’s anti-Palestinian and anti-immigrant agenda.
The website recently went dark, with a message reading “access denied.”
The webpage, featured on Columbia University’s admissions site as of last month, guided undocumented applicants on how to apply to the university and receive financial aid. The page touted the university’s commitment to diversity and its commitment to meeting 100 percent of the demonstrated financial aid needs of all applicants, including undocumented and international students.
The website, however, recently went dark, with a message reading “access denied.”
It’s unclear if the page’s disappearance was intentional, but the timing raises questions. (Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Columbia University has faced significant criticism for acquiescing to the Trump administration as it continues a full-on assault against the university’s noncitizen student body.
Trump Attacks
Earlier this month, federal immigration officials detained a prominent Palestinian student activist and permanent resident, Mahmoud Khalil, without charging him with a crime.
On Friday, the Department of Justice announced an investigation into whether Columbia was sheltering undocumented immigrants on campus. The announcement came after federal officials raided dorms last Thursday.
Trump also targeted the university with $400 million in cuts to federal grants. Despite having some of the most aggressive anti-protest crackdowns in the nation, federal officials alleged that the school has not done enough to root out antisemitism — which both the university and the Trump administration conflate with nearly any criticism of Israel.
Despite the administration’s attacks, Columbia University’s response continues to be appeasement and escalating crackdowns on their own students, even as schools with smaller endowments fight back.
Columbia is reportedly nearing an agreement to give into a list of demands from the Trump administration to unlock the federal grants, which include banning masks; ramping up campus policing; and placing the school’s Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies departments under receivership, which would give control of the departments to an outside party.
This comes after the university moved last week to expel, suspend, and even revoke degrees from students who participated in on-campus ceasefire demonstrations over the past year and a half. One of the Trump administration’s specific demands in a letter to the school, leaked last week, was to crack down with harsher penalties, including expulsion, for students involved in protests.
“Columbia Surrendered”
The federal crackdown on immigrant and foreign students at Columbia escalated significantly with the arrest of Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident who graduated from Columbia in December.
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified Khalil’s arrest by citing allegations against Khalil that the university had also made in disciplinary charges. After a one-day interim suspension, however, the school dropped those charges and, according to Khalil, apologized for bringing them.
In a statement from a detention center in Louisiana this week, Khalil called out Columbia for creating the conditions that led to his imprisonment by the Trump administration and for kowtowing to their demands.
“Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing — based on racism and disinformation — to go unchecked,” wrote Khalil, referring to former President Minouche Shafik and current interim head Katrina Armstrong, as well as Keren Yarhi-Milo, the dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, from which he graduated. “Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence students criticizing Israel.”
“Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration’s latest threats.”
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
Contact the author:
Related
Columbia Apologized to Mahmoud Khalil in May 2024 for One-Day Suspension
Appeasement Is Failing: Why Fighting Back Against Trump Is the Only Option
Trump’s New Muslim Ban Poised to Sweep Up Immigrants Already in the U.S.
Columbia Bent Over Backward to Appease Right-Wing, Pro-Israel Attacks — And Trump Still Cut Federal Funding
Latest Stories
Targeting Iran
These Middle Eastern News Sites Are Actually U.S. Government Propaganda Operations
Al-Fassel and Pishtaz News publish pro-U.S. coverage about the war on Iran and the Trump administration’s plan to redevelop Gaza.
Israel’s War on Gaza
Democrats Are Split Over What It Means to Block Israel Weapons Deals
There’s a divide between those seeking to end all U.S. weapons deals with Israel and those who want to allow some exceptions.
Midterms 2026
Crypto Critic Maxine Waters’s New Primary Foe Got Over Two-Thirds of Money From Crypto
Maxine Waters, the scourge of crypto, could become Financial Services Committee chair if Democrats win the House in midterm elections.