Good morning. It’s Monday, and the beer guy debated Charlie Kirk. Insane crossover. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Federal immigration officials arrested a prominent pro-Palestinian protester at Columbia University who holds a green card. It is unclear if the arrest was an isolated, performative incident, or the start of a genuine effort to deport protesters at elite schools the White House has targeted for alleged antisemitism, including USC.

Eliza Shapiro / The New York Times

2.

Related: Days before the Columbia arrest, the State Department said it would start using AI to review tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts for “pro-jihadist” activity, then deport alleged wrongdoers. “Americans won't like this,” a First Amendment advocate said. “They'll view this as capitulating free speech rights.”

Marc Caputo / Axios

3.

Hundreds of USC and UCLA scientists marched Friday outside LA’s federal offices, calling for an end to the Trump administration’s scientific funding cuts and layoffs. One USC professor said his Alzheimer’s research grant has been held up for five weeks, and that the school is becoming more cautious about giving offers to graduate students.

Lila Seidman / Los Angeles Times

4.

Secret audio recordings caught LA police officers in the department’s recruitment office spewing racist comments about Black police applicants, female colleagues, and lesbian and gay officers. “You hit Black people in the liver,” a Latina officer advised her colleagues. “I heard they got weak livers.”

Richard Winton and Libor Jany / Los Angeles Times

5.

Thousands of trees will go unplanted in LA thanks to federal funding cuts ordered by Elon Musk’s DOGE. Nonprofit leaders say low-income communities like Watts, Boyle Heights, and South LA will be the hardest hit, but that they’ll attempt to turn to private and state funding to continue their tree-planting efforts.

Evan Jacoby / LAist