More than 2,000 people have been arrested on campuses since protests began. Here's the latest (2024)

More than 2,000 people have been arrested at colleges and universities since April 18 as a growing wave ofpro-Palestinian campus protests ripples across the US.

During the weeks of demonstrations, protesters have mainly called for schools todivestfrom companies that support Israel and thewar in Gaza.

Recent days have seen large crackdowns on protesters: Nearly 200 people were arrested on May 1, after April 30 saw the largest number of arrests in a day since protests beganwith nearly 400 arrests, according to a CNN review.

President Joe Biden has delivered his most extensive remarks on the unrest. He drew a line between what he calledpeaceful and violent protests, repeatedhis support for Israel,and dismissed calls for theNational Guard to intervene.

Here are the latest developments on campuses nationwide:

Portland State University: At least 30 people were arrested Thursday at the school, where law enforcement was working to clear a library that had been occupied by protesters since Monday, according to authorities.

University of Pennsylvania: Eight days after a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up in the center of the university, the Ivy League school wrote a letter to the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office asking for more police resources, a school spokesperson told CNN on Thursday.

Columbia University: The district attorney's office is reviewing an incident in which a New York City Police Department officer fired a gun in Hamilton Hall during Tuesday night's police activity at the school, a Manhattan district attorney’s office spokesperson told CNN.

Emory University: The Departmentof Education's civil rights office has opened a federal investigation into the university in Atlanta, according to a letter sent by the department to Palestine Legal and the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and shared with CNN. The probe comes aftera pro-Palestinian protest at the university last week ended in arrests — but is based on allegations of incidents that the groups said came well before the demonstration.

University of California, Los Angeles: More than 200 people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of resisting orders to disperse from the now-dismantled encampment on the campus.

At least 30 people were arrested Thursday at Portland State University, where law enforcement was working to clear a library that had been occupied by protesters since Monday, according to authorities.

Arrests were made in a park and at the library, where some people broke back into the building after police left, Portland police told CNN

The situation remained “active” as of about 8 p.m. local time, Portland police said.

Police said they were monitoring the library and several groups that have “splintered off into small marches."

Officers entered the library around 6 a.m. Thursday. Inside, officers found what appeared to be improvised weapons, hollow bamboo sticks, buckets full of ball bearings, unspecified tools, paint balloons, spray bottles filled with ink with a note that said they were meant to be deployed at officers and cups of paint, Portland police Sgt. Kevin Allen said. A soap or slick substance was on at least one floor of the building, making it difficult for the officers to walk, he said.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversees Portland police, said those arrested would be prosecuted.

Over the past week, student journalists have been working around the clock from a makeshift newsroom inside Columbia University.

Due to the school's strict lockdown, they were the only media allowed on campus on April 30 as police massed outside.

Palestinian journalist Samaa Khullar was one of them.

Eight days after a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up in the center of the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League school has written a letter to the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office asking for more police resources, a school spokesperson told CNN on Thursday.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s office has requested more information from the university, which administrators are working to provide, the spokesperson said.

The university declined to provide a copy of the letter and CNN has sought comment from the mayor's office.

Philadelphia police have an agreement with University of Pennsylvania police “to ensure effective cooperation in situations requiring a police presence,” according to Philadelphia police spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp.

Philadelphia police do not publicly share strategies related to ongoing situations, Gripp said.

The situation at the university since Wednesday night has been tense. The universitysaida pro-Palestinian rally at the encampment late Wednesday “escalated at multiple times” and resulted in “defacement of Penn property, an unauthorized drone, and threatening rhetoric and chants.”

On Thursday, CNN witnessed a minor confrontation between campus police and protesters when protesters jumped barriers and began chanting on and around a statue of Benjamin Franklin on the College Green. The incident did not result in any arrests but the police presence was heightened.

A New York City Police Department officer fired a gun in Hamilton Hall during Tuesday night's police response at Columbia University, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office told CNN on Thursday.

The district attorney's office is reviewing the incident, as it is part of the district attorney's policy to do so, office spokesperson Doug Cohen said. No students and only police officers were immediately nearby the gunfire incident, and no one was injured, Cohen said.

An NYPD investigation determined the officer accidentally fired his gun while using the attached flashlight to search Hamilton Hall's first floor, the police department said Thursday.

The round hit a frame on a wall and no injuries were reported, police said, noting body camera footage of the incident has been given to the DA's office

The NYPD will hold a briefing on the incident at 11:30 a.m. ET Friday.

At Columbia, dozens of protestersentered the university’s Hamilton Hallearly Tuesdayand barricaded themselves inside before the university asked for the NYPD’s assistance to clear the building.

Police entered the building late Tuesday. Authorities arrested 112 people in connection with protests and the building occupation late Tuesday and overnight, including 32 who were not affiliated with the university, according to an NYPD official.

The Departmentof Education's civil rights office has opened a federal investigation into Emory University in Atlanta, according to a letter sent by the department to Palestine Legal and the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and shared with CNN.

The investigation comes aftera pro-Palestinian demonstration at the university last week ended in arrests — but is based on allegations of incidents that the groups said came well before the protest.

A complaint,filed by Palestine Legal and CAIR-Georgia in early April,alleges that “the university discriminated against students on the basis of national origin (shared Palestinian, Muslim, and/or Arab ancestry) and/or race (Black) by failing to respond appropriately to incidents of harassment beginning on October 7, 2023,” the letter said.

In a joint statement, CAIR-Georgia and Palestine Legal said the complaint was filed after the organizations sent Emory a letter"detailing the hostile Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian climate on campus and Emory refused to take tangible action."

Among the allegations in the complaint: On October 10, a post announcing a vigil for Palestine was removed from the Emory Instagram account and never reposted, while “a vigil for Israeli clubs on campus” was reposted to the account, the Education Department's civil rights office's letter reads.

The complaint also allegesthat on February 2, the university did not allow flags for a “memorial for Palestine” to be posted in the university quad, while other signs were allowed in the area, the letter reads.

An Emory University spokesperson told CNN that the university received the complaint from the department and "will respond" but that the school was unable to publicly discuss an open investigation.

“Opening an investigation in no way implies that (the Education Department's civil rights office) has made a determination with regard to the merits,” the letter from the civil rights office said.

More than 200 people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of resisting orders to disperse from the now-dismantled encampment on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, theCalifornia Highway Patrol indicated that 132 people were arrested during that morning's move by law enforcement officers to remove the protest encampment.The move came after the university said the encampment and all unauthorized tents and structures on campus were unlawful.

Block said those who remained in the encampment Wednesday night were given several warnings to leave peacefully before officers arrived.

“Ultimately, about 300 protesters voluntarily left, while more than 200 resisted orders to disperse and were arrested,” he said.

The UCLA Police Department ultimately arrested a total of 210 people on suspicion of failure to disperse, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Dominic Choi said in athread on X.

The anti-war student protests unfolding across US campuses could be "Biden's Vietnam" moment,US Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont told CNN on Thursday, warning that President Joe Biden's stance over Israel's war on Gaza may have alienated young voters.

During an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Sanders drew a parallel between the current protests and those that occurred during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson in the late 1960s when American students protested against the Vietnam War.

"In terms of his campaign, I am thinking back and other people are making this reference that this may be Biden's Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson, in many respects, was a very, very good president. ... He chose not to run in '68 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam," Sanders said.

The senator said people should note why students are demonstrating in huge numbers: "They are out there not because they are pro-Hamas. They are out there because they are outraged by what the Israeli government is now doing in Gaza."

Sanders said he believes students who are protesting against sustained US aid to a "right wing extremist Netanyahu government" are doing so "for the right reasons."

The politician told CNN that he hopes from both a "policy point of view and a moral point of view" that President Biden "stops giving a blank check to Netanyahu" and realizes that US support to Israel "has not been helpful."

When President Joe Biden returned to the White House on Wednesday evening from a campaign event at the nearby Mayflower Hotel, he asked his advisers to assemble a basic outline of remarks on the protests — if he were to deliver them.

Three White House officials say Biden and his closest aides went back and forth to incorporate Biden’s edits, with a final decision and final draft produced early Thursday morning.

Biden later that morning made his first extensive remarks on the campus protests, attempting to balance the right to free speech and his desire for law and order, and insisting he has not changed his support for Israel.

Senior advisers had long been tracking the developments in the protests through official channels with local governments and law enforcement.

Behind the scenes, younger West Wing staffers — many recent graduates themselves or with contemporaries pursuing post-graduate degrees — also sought to raise awareness from firsthand accounts they were receiving from friends on campuses, with alerts that grew in intensity in recent days.

In particular, the escalation at Columbia University and UCLA — and the increasing involvement of law enforcement on campuses nationwide — piqued the president’s desire to speak in public, beyond written statements and the commentary offered by spokespeople on his behalf.