Biden's Education Secretary Cardona threatens to 'remove federal dollars' amounting to $5 BILLION from any school that doesn't shut down anti-Israel camps and condemns 'abhorrent' protests

Columbia University and other Ivy League colleges allowing anti-Israel camps could have over $5 billion in federal funding ripped away, President Biden's top education official warned Tuesday. 

Department of Education Sec. Miguel Cardona strongly condemned the 'abhorrent' protests taking over college campuses nationwide and confirmed Columbia University is under a federal investigation. 

Ivy Leagues universities, which received an estimated $5 billion in federal funding last fiscal year, have seen their campuses overrun by pro-Gaza protestors for weeks. 

Protestors at Columbia, which got $1.2 billion from taxpayers in 2023, are calling for the school to end its investment in Israel-related entities.

Often their cheers have devolved from pro-Palestinian sentiments to anti-Israel remarks. One of the encampment's leaders has said Zionists should be killed.

'If a school refuses to comply with Title VI, yes, we would remove federal dollars,' President Biden's Department of Education Sec. Miguel Cardona warned Tuesday at a Senate hearing.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race in education programs receiving federal financing. 

Department of Education Sec. Miguel Cardona said his agency is investigation Columbia University. According to the agency website, there are two investigations open currently

Pro-Palestinian protestors smashed windows and took over a campus building at Columbia University, escalating tensions between them and the school

'And I should share with you that we do have an open investigation at Columbia University,' Cardona added.

If Columbia is found in violation of of Title VI, Cardona would ensure that federal funding going to the institution stops.

According to the Department of Education's website, Columbia University is under two investigations for Title VI infractions. 

One was opened November 16, 2023, and another was opened a week ago on April 23, 2023. 

In fact, most Ivy League schools are under ongoing investigation for civil rights infractions, according to the Department of Education. Out of the eight Ivy League schools six are currently being investigated. 

All of the investigations were started after the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel. 

Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, Princeton University, Brown University and Columbia University are all being probed for civil rights violations.

The only Ivy League schools not being investigated are the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College. 

Pro-Gaza protestors barricade themselves in a Columbia University building

The announcement comes after protestors at Columbia ransacked a school building Monday evening. 

Videos show students smashing windows with hammers and getting into scuffles with university staff. 

The students were able to occupy the building overnight and displayed a huge banner reading 'Intifada' on the hall's exterior.

The activists were told to disband their camp by Monday afternoon, but they remained unmoved even after law enforcement came to remove them as university faculty linked arms in a human chain to protect the demonstrators. 

'The antisemitism students are experiencing on campus is unacceptable,' Cardona said.

When pressed by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., on whether protestors blocking Jewish students from class is acceptable on college campuses, as has happened at Columbia, Cardona responded: 'Absolutely not.'

'While I support and defend the First Amendment right, it's not acceptable when students have to deal with antisemitism on campus or calls for genocide,' Cardona said after the hearing. 

'We need to do better, and our students need to be safe.'

Part of doing better, he testified, is securing the funding necessary to deploy more Department of Education employees to college campuses where Title VI infractions occur.

Pro-Gaza protestors unfurled a huge 'Intifada' sign, referencing past bloody conflicts between the Israeli and Palestinian people

A member of the Columbia University maintenance crew confronts the demonstrators attempting to barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall

Currently, the agency does not have anyone deployed to Columbia to monitor anti-Semitism and calls for violence on campus despite its ongoing protests and encampment. 

It is unclear when the investigations into Columbia's Title VI infractions will be completed. 

The anti-Israel rhetoric has gotten so heated that Republican and Democrat lawmakers have called for change as Jewish students have faced threats.