WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is known best for enforcing the right to disability services across America’s schools. But under President Donald Trump, it’s taking a frontline role in his political battles.

Trump appointees have halted thousands of pending cases while they open new investigations aligned with the president’s campaign promises. Career staffers have been sidelined and pressured to quit, and those who remain are being ordered to refocus priorities on antisemitism, transgender issues and anti-DEI complaints.

A memo Friday from the civil rights office’s chief announced antisemitism cases are now the top priority, taking aim at colleges where pro-Palestinian protests brought accusations of anti-Jewish bias. That followed a decision to cut $400 million in federal money going to Columbia University, where on Saturday immigration officials arrested a Palestinian activist who was involved in leading student protests.

Hanging in the balance are the types of cases the office traditionally has focused on — students with disabilities who need services they aren’t getting, or students facing harassment tied to their skin color.

It’s normal for new presidential administrations to pause civil rights cases while they get acclimated, but this transition brought a longer and more rigid freeze than others. Trump officials lifted the freeze for disability cases on Feb. 20, and last week, new Education Secretary Linda McMahon said all cases could resume as normal.

During Trump’s first month in office, the Office for Civil Rights resolved about 50 cases, according to a staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. By comparison, the office resolved more than 3,000 complaints in the same window of Trump’s first term, and almost 500 under former President Joe Biden.

Even the most urgent cases, which are traditionally granted exceptions, sat idle during the freeze. Staff lawyers were told not to respond to outside calls or emails, leaving families in the dark.

Another staff member at the civil rights office described desperate emails from parents whose schools refused to make accommodations for their children’s disabilities. “We were just ignoring their emails,” said the person, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Tylisa Guyton of Taylor, Michigan, filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights on Jan. 20 over her 16-year-old son’s repeated suspensions from a suburban Detroit school district, alleging a white administrator was targeting him and a group of other Black children. The teen has been out of school since Dec. 4. Even as investigations resume, she has heard nothing from the civil rights agency.

“He’s still asking every day, ‘When can I go back to school?’” Guyton said of her son.

The memo Friday told staffers antisemitism would be an “investigative and enforcement priority.” It added the memo should not be interpreted as “‘deprioritizing’ any other form of OCR enforcement activity.” But staffers said that’s the most likely outcome as dwindling ranks of employees face heavier caseloads tied to the president’s agenda.

On Monday, the Education Department sent a letter to 60 colleges warning they could lose federal money if they fail to make campuses safe for Jewish students. The list includes Harvard, Cornell and many others where pro-Palestinian protests led to accusations of anti-Jewish bias.

Politics usually play into the office’s priorities to some degree, and Republicans similarly accused Biden officials of going too far when they opened cases into COVID-19 mask bans or in support of transgender students. But several longtime staffers said this is the first time they’ve seen cases tied to political agendas edge out their everyday work.

Trump has called for a total shutdown of the Education Department, calling it a “con job” infiltrated by leftists. At her Senate hearing, McMahon said the civil rights office might be better served if it moves to the Justice Department.

Some cases are moving forward, but others appear to be stalled, Marcie Lipsitt, said a special education advocate in Michigan.

“I’ve said to everyone, ’You’re going to have to fight harder for accountability because there will be no accountability at the U.S. Department of Ed, if there is a U.S. Department of Ed,” she said.

At the same time, Trump’s officials have continued to open their own “directed investigations” — proactive inquiries that depart from the office’s typical work responding to complaints. The office has opened more than a dozen such investigations, many aimed at pressuring universities to stop allowing transgender athletes or to take a harder stance against pro-Palestinian protesters.

It adds up to more work for fewer employees at the office of about 500 workers. Staffers say field offices across the country were hit after dozens of department workers were put on leave in response to Trump’s orders against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Many others took buyouts pushed by the Trump administration, leaving some field offices without administrators in key leadership jobs.

Minor changes to the office’s policies could also carry outsize impact. Complaints to the office can’t move forward unless the filer signs a consent form allowing their name to be disclosed during the investigation. For years, the office sent reminders if the form was not submitted — parents often didn’t know it was required. But an updated case manual from the Trump administration drops the reminders.

Staffers say it means more cases will be dismissed on a technicality.

Some special education advocates have begun filing more cases with state agencies, said Brandi Tanner, an Atlanta-based psychologist and special education advocate. In conversations at a recent conference in California, disability advocates expressed uncertainty and anxiety, Tanner said.

“’It’s kind of like, we’re very scared about what else is going to continue to come down the pike,” she said. “Are students going to lose their rights?”

___

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump warned Monday that the arrest and possible deportation of a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University will be the first “of many to come” as his administration cracks down on campus demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza.

Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful U.S. resident who was a graduate student at Columbia until December, was detained Saturday by federal immigration agents in New York and flown to an immigration jail in Louisiana.

The Department of Homeland Security said Khalil was taken into custody as a result of Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism. Khalil has not been charged with any crimes over his activities during campus unrest last year at the university.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”

Khalil’s detention drew immediate outrage from civil rights groups and free speech advocates, who accused the administration of using its immigration enforcement powers to squelch criticism of Israel.

“The Department of Homeland Security’s lawless decision to arrest him solely because of his peaceful anti-genocide activism represents a blatant attack on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, immigration laws, and the very humanity of Palestinians,” said the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights advocacy group.

Federal immigration authorities also visited a second international student at Columbia on Friday evening and attempted to take her into custody but were not allowed to enter the apartment, according to a union representing the student. The woman has not been identified, and it’s not clear what grounds ICE had for the visit.

The Student Workers of Columbia, a graduate student union representing the woman, said the three agents did not have an arrest warrant and were “rightfully turned away at the door.”

Khalil is the first person known to be detained for deportation under Trump’s promised crackdown on student protests.

Trump has argued that protesters forfeited their rights to remain in the country by supporting the Palestinian group Hamas that controls Gaza. The U.S. has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Khalil and other student leaders of Columbia University Apartheid Divest have rejected claims of antisemitism, saying they are part of a broader anti-war movement that also includes Jewish students and groups. But the protest coalition, at times, has also voiced support for leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Islamist organization designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group.

It’s unclear when Khalil will have a hearing in immigration court, which is typically the first step in the deportation process. Spokespersons for ICE and DHS did not immediately provide details about his case Monday.

Typically, expelling a person who has permanent residency in the U.S. requires a high bar, such as that person being convicted of certain types of crimes.

Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents and has an American citizen wife who is eight months pregnant, emerged as one of the most visible activists in the protests at Columbia.

He served as mediator on behalf of both pro-Palestinian activists and Muslim students, a role that put him in direct touch with university leaders and the press — and drew attention from pro-Israel activists, who in recent weeks called on the Trump administration to deport him.

“He was the administrative interfacing person for any pro-Palestine group on campus that has been too scared to talk to the administration,” another student protester, Maryam Alwan, told The Associated Press. “He took a public facing role, and now he’s being targeted for speaking to the media.”

More recently, Khalil faced investigation by a new disciplinary body set up at Columbia University.

The Office of Institutional Equity sent him a letter last month accusing him of potentially violating a new harassment policy by posting a message in a WhatsApp group referencing a “genocidal dean” who moderated a panel with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Khalil told the AP last week that he served as a spokesperson for protesters but did not play a leadership role in the group’s decision-making or have anything to do with its social media posts.

“They are alleging that I was the leader of CUAD or the social media person, which is very far from reality,” he said, using the acronym for the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Khalil received a master’s degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs last semester. He previously graduated from the Lebanese American University in Beirut with a computer science degree and worked at the British Embassy in Beirut’s Syria office, according to his biography on the Society for International Development’s website.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a message posted Sunday on X that the administration will be “revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

Columbia University declined to comment on Khalil’s arrest over the weekend and also did not immediately respond Monday.

The Trump administration last week pulled $400 million in federal funding from Columbia because of what it claimed was the Ivy League school’s failure to rein in antisemitism on campus.

A protest was scheduled for later Monday in front of a federal office building in Manhattan.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The father of a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, who went missing in the popular Dominican Republic tourist town of Punta Cana while on spring break with friends, said he has asked authorities to widen their investigation.

Konanki was last seen before dawn on March 6 at a beach near the resort where she was staying, according to Civil Defense officials.

“It’s four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore,” her father Subbarayudu Konanki told WTOP-FM. “She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.”

Authorities were using drones, helicopters and detection dogs on Monday to scour the waters off the island’s east coast where she was supposedly last seen, Jensen Sánchez, a Civil Defense spokesman, told The Associated Press.

“The search is underway at sea because it’s presumed she drowned. According to the boy who was with her, the waves swept her away, but that is under police investigation,” he said.

He noted it can take more than a week for a body to surface in warm waters.

When her family learned of her disappearance, Subbarayudu Konanki and his wife Sreedevi flew to Punta Cana with two family friends. He and a family friend filed a record of complaint Sunday, asking authorities to widen the investigation.

The complaint notes that the student’s belongings, including her phone and wallet, were left with her friends, “which is unusual because she always carried her phone with her.”

“In light of these circumstances, I respectfully request that the authorities take immediate steps to investigate not only the possibility of an accidental drowning, but also the possibility of a kidnapping or foul play,” he wrote, according to WTOP-FM.

Sudiksha Konanki, a citizen of India, is a U.S. permanent resident from Chantilly, Virginia, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, which is working with federal officials and university police in support of the Dominican National Police investigation.

University of Pittsburgh officials are in contact with the family and authorities in Virginia, and have offered their support in the efforts to find the missing student and bring her home safely, the school said in a statement.

Konanki and five other female university students traveled to the Dominican Republic on March 3, according to her dad.

“She wanted to have a nice break with her friends in Punta Cana,” he said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist Saturday who played a prominent role in Columbia University’s protests against Israel, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s pledge to detain and deport student activists.

Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press.

Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed Khalil’s arrest in a statement Sunday, describing it as being “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”

Khalil’s arrest is the first publicly known deportation effort under Trump’s promised crackdown on students who joined protests against the war in Gaza that swept college campuses last spring. The administration has claimed participants forfeited their rights to remain in the country by supporting Hamas.

McLaughlin signaled the arrest was directly connected to Khalil’s role in the protests, alleging he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

As ICE agents arrived at Khalil’s Manhattan residence Saturday night, they also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, Greer said.

Khalil’s attorney said they were initially informed that he was being held at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when his wife tried to visit Sunday, she learned he was not there. Greer said she still did not know Khalil’s whereabouts as of Sunday night.

“We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,” Greer told the AP. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.”

A Columbia University spokesperson said law enforcement agents must produce a warrant before entering university property, but declined to say if the school had received one ahead of Khalil’s arrest. The spokesperson declined to comment on Khalil’s detention.

In a message shared on X Sunday evening, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

The Department of Homeland Security can initiate deportation proceedings against green card holders for a broad range of alleged criminal activity, including supporting a terror group. But the detention of a legal permanent resident who has not been charged with a crime marked an extraordinary move with an uncertain legal foundation, according to immigration experts.

“This has the appearance of a retaliatory action against someone who expressed an opinion the Trump administration didn’t like,” said Camille Mackler, founder of Immigrant ARC, a coalition of legal service providers in New York.

Khalil, who received his master’s degree from Columbia’s school of international affairs last semester, served as a negotiator for students as they bargained with university officials over an end to the tent encampment erected on campus last spring.

The role made him one of the most visible activists in support of the movement, prompting calls from pro-Israel activists in recent weeks for the Trump administration to begin deportation proceedings against him.

Khalil was also among those under investigation by a new Columbia University office that has brought disciplinary charges against dozens of students for their pro-Palestinian activism, according to records shared with the AP.

The investigations come as the Trump administration has followed through on its threat to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to Columbia because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.

The university’s allegations against Khalil focused on his involvement in the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group. He faced sanctions for potentially helping to organize an “unauthorized marching event” in which participants glorified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and playing a “substantial role” in the circulation of social media posts criticizing Zionism, among other acts of alleged discrimination.

“I have around 13 allegations against me, most of them are social media posts that I had nothing to do with,” Khalil told the AP last week.

“They just want to show Congress and right-wing politicians that they’re doing something, regardless of the stakes for students,” he added. “It’s mainly an office to chill pro-Palestine speech.”

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Facing the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, Duke University is preparing for the worst.

Like research universities around the United States, the private school in North Carolina’s Research Triangle would see a massive loss from Trump administration cuts to grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Duke would be among the hardest hit. In its previous fiscal year, Duke took in $580 million in NIH grants and contracts, 11th most among the country’s research institutions. The cuts are delayed temporarily by a court challenge, but universities nationwide have implemented hiring freezes, scaled back research and drawn up contingency plans in case the loss in funding takes effect.

Historically, the federal government has negotiated with colleges and universities on its contribution toward their operating costs. If a scientist wins a federal grant to fund their research, the government pays the school an additional amount as a percentage of the grant money.

At Duke, the current rate for these “indirect costs” — expenses such as utilities and laboratory maintenance — is about 61%. Last month, President Donald Trump’s administration set the rate cap at 15%, significantly less than most universities receive.

The cut in indirect costs is far from the only concern. Funding for new grants also slowed to a trickle after the NIH halted grant application review meetings in January. At Duke, NIH grant and contract award notices plummeted, dropping from 166 in January and February of 2024 to 64 so far in 2025, according to the university.

Already, the uncertainty is causing reverberations at Duke’s School of Medicine, which receives over three-quarters of the university’s NIH funding. Expansion projects are being shelved. Fewer Ph.D. students are being admitted. And researchers are assessing whether their projects can continue.

Payments maintain freezers and machines to grow cancer cells

The Trump administration has described indirect costs as “administrative bloat” and said the cuts would save more than $4 billion annually. The change would also free up more money for scientific research, officials said.

“The Trump administration is committed to slashing the cottage industry built off of the waste, fraud, and abuse within our mammoth government while prioritizing the needs of everyday Americans,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said.

Through NIH funding, universities for decades have partnered with the federal government to support scientists’ academic pursuits.

Duke pharmacology and cancer biology professor Donald McDonnell estimates his laboratory has received up to $40 million in NIH funding over 30 years. His lab developed a drug approved in 2023 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat metastatic breast cancer.

Upkeep for lab equipment, including machines to grow cancer cells and massive freezers for enzymes and chemicals, would be difficult to afford if indirect cost rates dropped to 15%, McDonnell said. His laboratory also likely will be in the red due to the uncertainty around NIH grants, which would lead to staff layoffs.

“The bottom line is, I can’t live, I can’t think in this chaos,” McDonnell said.

Duke’s total research budget last fiscal year was $1.33 billion, with $863 million coming from the federal government. Without NIH funding, many scientists would have to turn to private organizations and philanthropies, which typically offer substantially less money, researchers said.

“We have long-standing relationships with private funders and industry partners, and value the contributions they make, but federal funds by far provide the largest single source of research dollars,” said Geeta Swamy, executive vice dean of the School of Medicine.

The cap on indirect costs also would hinder research for incoming neurosurgery and biomedical engineering professor Nanthia Suthana, who is relocating from the University of California, Los Angeles.

To study brain activity and treat conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder and Parkinson’s disease, Suthana requires a lab large enough for patients to walk around while headsets and monitors capture heart rate, eye tracking, perspiration and brainwaves. Along the walls, 40 to 50 cameras — each costing about $5,000 — record their movements.

Her new lab is under construction, but Suthana said she is worried she will have to downsize within a year if funding uncertainties persist.

Ph.D. students are in limbo

Duke’s medical school has scaled back the number of Ph.D. students it will admit for the upcoming fall semester. Last year, the school brought in about 130 students, said Beth Sullivan, who oversees the school’s 17 biomedical Ph.D. programs. Now, the target is 100 students or less.

That means smaller class sizes over time and, in turn, a shrinking pipeline into medical research careers, she said.

“Our next generation of researchers are now poised on the edge of this cliff, not knowing if there’s going to be a bridge that’s going to get them to the other side, or if this is it,” Sullivan said.

Of the more than 630 Ph.D. students in the medical school, nearly all the students in their second year and beyond receive federal support from either NIH or the National Science Foundation.

Third-year doctoral student Caleb McIver was applying for an NIH diversity supplement — a funding opportunity to encourage professors to train minority students — when information about the initiative was removed from the agency’s website. McIver, who is Black, is now looking into other NIH grants without ties to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which the Trump administration has been wiping out of the federal government.

“I’m pretty stressed,” McIver said. “I mean, I need funding, so we need to find it.”

Duke reconsiders plans for new research building

The university had been planning to build a new research building on the site of an old, recently vacated building. Now those plans are on hold, School of Medicine Vice Dean Colin Duckett said.

Even smaller projects like renovating a building floor can’t start because of the budget uncertainty. Hundreds of people working in shuttered labs will consolidate in other buildings. If the indirect costs rate drops to 15%, there also would be widespread layoffs, Duckett said.

Duckett’s job previously focused on recruiting the brightest scientists and providing them with resources at Duke, he said. Now, he has taken on a much different role.

“It’s damage control,” he said. “It’s how to survive as an institution.”

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

KILGORIS, Kenya (AP) — “I am worth defending!” a group of girls chant as they each take up a fighting stance.

They are about to practice combat techniques. And no, they are not part of a martial arts club. They are Maasai girls living at a boarding school in Transmara in western Kenya, which doubles up as a rescue center for teens who have escaped early marriage and female genital mutilation.

“We learn how to protect ourselves, how to protect our bodies,” said Grace Musheni, 14, who has been living and studying at the Enkakenya Centre for Excellence since 2023.

The center was set up in 2009 by Kakenya Ntaiya, a Maasai woman who was subjected to genital cutting herself. It doesn’t just offer a safe haven for girls at risk of early marriage: it also provides a free high school education as an incentive for parents to allow their daughters to stay in school instead of undergoing the cutting ritual that is still common for Maasai girls between the ages of 8 and 17.

Once a girl is circumcised, she is considered an adult and ripe for marriage, meaning an abrupt end to childhood and education for many.

“Most child marriages are caused by poverty in families,” Musheni explains. “Because of this poverty, you can get that a parent can allow their daughter to be married by an old man — because the family can be paid.”

While Ntaiya was unable to escape genital mutilation herself, she convinced her father to allow her to continue her education, and she now holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of Pittsburgh and multiple awards for her work.

“I am a beneficiary of proper education and I really wanted to show my community how important it is to empower women and girls,” she says.

Although Kenyan law prohibits genital mutilation and marriage below age 18, both are still practiced, especially in rural areas where education levels remain low. The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey by the government found that 56.3% of women with no education had undergone genital mutilation, compared to 5.9% of women who had studied past secondary school.

Girls’ education apparently has an impact on gender-based violence too, with 34% of Kenyan women surveyed saying they were victims of physical violence, a figure that drops to 23% for women with education.

But that is still alarmingly high. So on top of providing education, the Enkakenya Centre partners with I’m Worth Defending to teach combative self-defense skills. It’s not so much so that they can physically fight potential abusers —- although they could — but it teaches them to be assertive in all areas of their lives.

“We train them with basic principles of assertiveness and boundary setting, which includes verbal and physical techniques,” says Amelia Awuor from I’m Worth Defending. “These skills instill confidence to speak up against violations or fight off physical threats.”

The training gave 14-year-old Rahab Lepishoi power to speak up for other girls. During a recent visit to her older sister, she learned that the girls in the village were about to be circumcised, including an old childhood friend. “I told her about the dangers of FGM and to come with me to my home to avoid (it),” Lepishoi says.

She is following in the footsteps of her educators, who visit remote communities in Transmara every year to raise awareness about genital mutilation, early marriage and the importance of education. “Now when I go to a place, I apply that skill of assertiveness and confidence. I educate my friends, so that when they meet with a boy, they will be confident and say what they mean,” says Lepishoi.

The self-defense classes also offer some protection against sexual abuse, which can end up trapping many in violent marriages. “When a girl reports to her parents that she has been abused, it is common for the parents to force the girl to marry the man that abused her,” said Musheni.

Purity Risanoi, 15, has been at the school for five years. Her mother is a widow and raised her five children alone, but cultural pressures from her community remain. “My family is still very traditional,” she says. “When a girl grows up, she is expected to get married and she cannot choose who to marry.”

Her solution? Keep studying. One day, she wants to be a lawyer.

Musheni meanwhile dreams of a career as a software engineer. She wants to come back here and use technology to uplift her community. “Girls can achieve great things,” she says. “I want to inspire others to chase their dreams.”

___

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

___

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse