The letter also coincides with the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and leader of Columbia University's encampment movement last year.

Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale were some of the universities that were told they are under investigation for potentially violating Title VI.

Experts say the Office for Civil Rights, which probes discrimination at K-12 schools and universities, may have to change tack with the shuttering of more than half of its regional offices