Officials yet to identify pro-Palestinian protesters arrested in Columbia library takeover

The names of the dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested in connection with the storming Wednesday afternoon of one of Columbia University's libraries had yet to be identified as of Thursday morning.

Neither the university nor the New York Police Department, whose officers made the arrests, did not appear to have information on their official communication sites, including their respective web pages or social media accounts. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the protests the visas of the "trespassers and vandals" would have their visas reviewed. But whether the protesters were students or outsiders – or both – remains unclear as of late Thursday morning.

"We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library," Rubio posted on X. "Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation."

While Rubio's statement appeared to indicate that the protesters were not students, CNBC TV18 called the protesters "students." Meanwhile, Columbia University President Claire Shipman said that many of the protesters were not students, the BBC reported.

Rubio's statement follows President Trump's executive order from January on combating antisemitism, which allows foreign students to be investigated, prosecuted, and removed for "unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence."

Two university security officers were injured as the protesters stormed the library. They were injured at the library doors, not at the gates of the Ivy League school, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, as reported by some news outlets. 

 A Columbia spokesperson said Wednesday the New York Police Department was called to arrest trespassers after protesters refused to produce identification and leave.

Also unclear Thursday was the disposition at the time of the incident of the 36 new special patrol officers recently appointed by the NYPD to be on campus.

Columbia's leaders applied to the city's police commissioner to appoint and swear in the officers last year, after the school had twice called in NYPD to arrest pro-Palestinian student protesters, according to Reuters.. Columbia had what is largely considered the biggest and most disruptive campus protests last year, following the start of the Israel-Hamas war.