Columbia tells students and staff how to respond to ICE agents, instructs them to ‘lock doors’
In a new protocol issued by Columbia University to students, faculty, and staff, the school instructs that if ICE agents come onto campus, they are to call the university’s office of public safety.
The protocol also includes a script for how to interact with ICE officers.
Columbia University has released a protocol for how faculty, staff, and students at the university are expected to interact with ICE agents.
On a Columbia University website promoting the “Protocol for Potential Visits to Campus By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents,” the university states that the protocol “is consistent with past practice.”
Outlining that the university’s office of public safety is the coordinator should federal authorities need access onto its campus, the protocol includes a script that is described to be used as a “response to questions or the attempted service of a warrant or subpoena.”
The script instructs faculty, students, and staff to state: “I am not authorized by the University to grant permission to enter non-public areas, provide information about individual students or employees, or accept service of documentation on behalf of the University.”
The script adds that individuals should “then refer the agents to Public Safety and the Office of the General Counsel.”
The protocol also instructs that if ICE agents ask to enter “non-public areas of the University or approach for information about another individual,” directives given include to “ask for credentials,” “ask them to wait,” and “do not accept service”
The protocol also addresses questions about whether or not “ICE agents [can] access campus or University buildings without a warrant?”
In the university’s provided response, the protocol states that “ICE agents must have a judicial warrant or subpoena to access non-public areas,” and that “areas open to the general public are similarly accessible to ICE agents, and they may enter without a warrant.”
The end of the protocol also instructs faculty and staff to call the University’s public safety office should they “observe ICE agents conducting enforcement activities on campus.”
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The protocol follows other developments at the university relating to ICE, including how the university’s acting president recently announced that it will postponing campus access expansion plans, as reported by the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Acting President Claire Shipman announced in early October that the university had considered a path to reopen areas of the campus, following access being restricted in October 2023, when protests were anticipated following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas.
Columbia also has a separate web page on its site that addresses questions on “visits to Campus from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
In the Q&A, the university states that it is not referring students to ICE, and tells students concerned about federal agents with warrants to “ensure doors close and lock behind you,” “Prevent unauthorized access (“piggybacking”),” and “verify visitors before granting entry.”
Campus Reform contacted Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
