New York, New York - The Trump administration has announced new steps aimed at repressing Palestine solidarity organizing at Columbia University in New York.

A Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism established by President Donald Trump is considering stop work orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the federal government.

The task force will also review $5 billion in federal grant commitments to the university.

The move appears to come in direct response to student-led solidarity demonstrations calling on Columbia to divest from Israel amid the ongoing atrocities in Palestine.

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"Americans have watched in horror for more than a year now, as Jewish students have been assaulted and harassed on elite university campuses. Unlawful encampments and demonstrations have completely paralyzed day-to-day campus operations, depriving Jewish students of learning opportunities to which they are entitled," newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a press release.

In response to the announcement, Columbia's administration issued a statement saying it is "fully committed to combatting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we are resolute that calling for, promoting, or glorifying violence or terror has no place at our University."

Columbia was one of many universities across the US that saw students and faculty rise up in support of the people of Palestine amid Israel's brutal US-backed assault.

Students made global headlines when they occupied a university building and renamed it after Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza.

The Columbia administration responded to on-campus solidarity activity by authorizing extreme militarized police suppression, resulting in more than 100 student arrests.

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Fallout over the violent crackdown led to the resignation of ex-university president Minouche Shafik last August.

"Anti-Semitism – like racism – is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues," said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"In recent years, the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence," Kennedy claimed.

The Trump administration's latest announcement comes just days after a third student was expelled at Columbia University's Barnard College.

The student was punished for "allegedly protesting the University's investments in genocide and allegedly participating in the occupation of Hind's Hall," Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) shared in a statement.

Two other students had been previously expelled for disrupting the first day of a modern Israeli history class in January in order to draw attention to the ongoing violence of settler colonialism.

The first two expulsions sparked large student protests at Columbia and Barnard, including a sit-in outside Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage's office – an action that once again saw threats of mass arrests.

The latest extreme disciplinary measure reportedly came one day after Columbia administrators were informed of an upcoming visit by the federal antisemitism task force.

"Rather than engage with students or divest, Barnard has rushed to satisfy the US Department of Justice by sanctioning and expelling students," CUAD wrote.

"These are the first official expulsions for protest on Columbia's campus since 1968, echoing their pattern of student expulsions for critiquing Columbia's financial ties into fascist regimes – the first expulsion being in 1938 when a student criticized Columbia's ties to Nazi Germany."

Despite the growing repression, solidarity activists at Columbia and Barnard have vowed to continue the fight for Palestinian liberation as well as for students taking a stand for justice.