US freezes funding for more universities
The Reuters news agency is reporting that the Trump administration has frozen more than $1bn in funding for Cornell University and $790m for Northwestern University while it investigates both schools over civil rights violations.
A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the funding being paused includes mostly grants and contracts with the federal departments of health, education, agriculture and defence.
The move comes weeks after the Trump administration sent a letter to 60 universities, including Cornell and Northwestern, warning of action if a review determined the schools had failed to stop what it called anti-Semitism.
Last week, the government announced a review of $9bn in grants and contracts to Harvard University, and last month, it cancelled $400m in funding for Columbia University, the epicentre of last year’s pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Trump has called the student protesters anti-Semitic, labelling them as sympathetic to Hamas and foreign policy threats. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza and advocacy for Palestinian rights with being anti-Jewish and supporting Hamas.
Judge gives US government one day to show evidence for deporting Mahmoud Khalil
An immigration judge in the US state of Louisiana has ordered the Trump administration to provide evidence justifying their attempt to deport the Columbia University student activist within 24 hours.
“If he’s not removable, I’m going to be terminating this case on Friday,” Judge Jamee Comans said during a hearing at the LaSalle Immigration Court earlier on Tuesday.
Khalil, 30, has been held in a remote detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, following his arrest in New York City on March 8. If the government’s deportation case is terminated at the hearing, scheduled for Friday afternoon, Khalil, 30, is free under immigration law.
At Tuesday’s hearing, a lawyer for Khalil, Marc Van Der Hout, said he had “not received a single document” in response to his request for “evidence and assertions” in the case. “We cannot plead until we know what the specific allegations are,” Van Der Hout said.
“I’m like you Mr Van Der Hout. I’d like to see the evidence,” the judge replied.
Department of Homeland Security lawyers told Comans they would provide the evidence by her 5pm Wednesday deadline.
The immigration case is separate from a challenge to the legality of his March arrest, known as a habeas corpus petition.
