An anti-ICE demonstration took place Thursday, February 5, 2026, outside Columbia University’s 116th Street and Broadway gates, where NYPD officers made 12 arrests, including students and faculty.

On Thursday, February 5, at approximately 2 pm, students protested at the 116th and Broadway gates against ICE on campus and in Morningside Heights. The protest demanded the University name itself a sanctuary campus, a status it held from 2017 to early March of 2025. The protest was organized by Sunrise Columbia, a student environmental activist group that has previously demonstrated against fossil fuel research funding, Columbia’s gate closures, and Trump administration regulations affecting universities. NYPD officers were already present and had partially barricaded portions of the sidewalk in advance.

At the demonstration, fliers were passed out that said the following:

“WHY ARE WE HERE TODAY?

Columbia’s leadership has collaborated with ICE in the kidnapping and detention of student protestors. The University has repeatedly failed to protect the Columbia community, endangering students.

Columbia administration rejected the demands proposed by a union of over 3,000 Columbia teachers and researchers, to enshrine Columbia as a sanctuary campus and add protections for non-citizens in their employment contract. Higher education should have been the first line of defense against Trump’s authoritarian power grabs. By not standing up to the federal government, Columbia is complicit in Trump’s Violence.

Columbia has aligned itself with a government that shoots people in the street.

WE DEMAND:

• Reinstate Columbia as a sanctuary campus, not allowing ICE or any law enforcement on Columbia University property
• Closing the “exigent circumstances” loophole which allows ICE on campus without a warrant.
• Stop voluntarily sharing student, faculty, and staff information with DHS and other law enforcement.
• Remove the Trustees and administrators who have enabled the Trump administration’s repression of non-citizens.

Clarify how Columbia has in the past, and continues to implement the agreement with the federal government.”

Additionally, students chanted slogans such as “Columbia your hands are red, giving students to the Feds,” and “we want justice, you say how, sanctuary campus now.”

At approximately 3 pm, the demonstration escalated when University affiliates formed a blockade in the roadway, linking arms and diverting traffic. NYPD officers ordered protesters to leave the roadway and warned that failure to do so would result in arrest. Eventually, NYPD arrested 12 individuals, and the protest dispersed shortly afterward.

Field Notes and Article by Bwog Staff