Department of Homeland Security officials conducted the search as the Trump administration sought to deport a former student and pro-Palestinian activist.

Federal agents searched two student residences at Columbia University, its interim president said, a week after immigration agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of last year's campus protests, who the Trump administration wants to deport.

Law enforcement sources tell ABC News that agents from Homeland Security Investigations were looking for at least one woman who was not home at the time when they showed up with search warrants.