Columbia Professors Arrested For Blocking Traffic to Protest ICE

Two Columbia University professors were arrested for blocking traffic for nearly an hour during an anti-ICE protest outside the Ivy League school's main gates on Thursday. One was a guard for the illegal anti-Israel encampment in April 2024.

Jennifer Hirsch, a sociomedical sciences professor who teaches "the anthropology of love," and Mila Rosenthal, a School of International and Public Affairs adjunct professor, were among the 12 agitators taken into custody as they called to abolish ICE and make Columbia a "sanctuary campus."

"I'm being arrested because fascist agents are arresting Americans!" Hirsch screamed to the crowd as two police officers dragged her by the arms. Earlier, the crowd of roughly 150 protesters chanted, "No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA!" and sang "Your people are my people, our struggles align"—the same song radicals sang the night they stormed a university building in April 2024.

Only two other arrestees have been named: Columbia College freshman Adeline Sauberli and William Tai, a 1978 graduate, according to the Columbia Spectator. All 12 have been served criminal court summonses, an NYPD spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon.

Disciplining student and faculty agitators could serve as the latest test of Columbia's resolve to keep its promise to the Trump administration that there would be concrete penalties for campus radicals. More unrest can be expected considering five student organizations involved in anti-Israel protests on campus united to stage Thursday's disruption.

"ICE raids terrorizing communities nationwide didn't happen overnight -- they were built with the support of institutions like Columbia who collaborated with ICE to kidnap student protestors," Sunrise Columbia, an environmental activist group, posted on Instagram. "HANDS OFF OUR COMMUNITIES and ICE OUT FOR GOOD!"

Still, Hirsch pointed to her Jewish faith as rationale for participating in Thursday's anti-ICE protest.

"It says in the Torah, be kind to the stranger for you are a stranger in a strange land," she told the Spectator before she was arrested. "So I'm just responding to what to this [sic] moment asks of all of us."

When reached for comment, Hirsch said via email she was "not available to speak this morning" and that Columbia's press team would be in touch. Her sign-off noted that she was "dictating all my email messages because I have a broken arm," which apparently didn't disrupt her ability to impede traffic.

It's unclear what, exactly, the anti-ICE protesters were attempting to accomplish. Columbia released a statement Thursday calling protesters' claims "factually incorrect."

"The University requires ICE to have a judicial warrant to access non-public areas, such as classrooms, housing, and other areas requiring a Columbia University ID," the statement read. "As we made clear repeatedly, no member of Columbia's leadership or the board of trustees has ever requested the presence of ICE agents on or near campus. This is a false assertion."

Thursday's protest is the latest example of anti-Israel and other far-left groups pivoting to focus on anti-ICE activities.

Hirsch once acted as security for the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" and has long lobbied for total amnesty for student radicals. Shortly after it was dismantled, Hirsch lauded the "vision and courage" of the student radicals in an X post that included a photo of the encampment with a sign that read "to resist is to love."

She also disseminated a petition in April 2024, "Condemning the arrest of students on Columbia's campus," that demanded "all Barnard College and Columbia University suspensions and charges be dismissed immediately and expunged from the students' records, and that all rights and privileges be restored to them immediately." It demanded that "no police be permitted on campus without serious consultation with the Executive Committee of the University Senate."

Columbia Sunrise, meanwhile, once quoted the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an official email. Columbia Palestinian Solidarity Coalition also helped organize Thursday's unrest. In August, the group promoted a fundraiser for Tarek Bazrouk, a self-described "Jew hater" who was later sentenced to 17 months in prison for attacking Jewish counter-protesters at three different anti-Israel demonstrations in late 2024 and early 2025.

Other organizers include the New York City chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which the Israeli government has accused of maintaining "close ties" with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group, and anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour who backed the convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Columbia did not return a request for comment.

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