More than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell University and some $790 million for Northwestern University have been frozen while the government investigates both schools for alleged civil rights violations, the White House said Tuesday, after warning the schools that they must protect Jewish students.

The move is part of a broader push to make major academic institutions comply with US President Donald Trump’s demands that they rein in pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel campus activity, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives related to transgender people.

The White House confirmed the pause in funding late Tuesday night, but offered no further details on what it entails, or which grants to the schools are being affected.

The Trump administration has suspended billions of dollars in funding to elite schools, accusing them of letting antisemitism run rampant at anti-Israel campus protests that followed October 7, 2023, when the Hamas terror group invaded southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

The moves have left universities across the US struggling to navigate cuts to research grants.

In a statement, Cornell said it had received more than 75 stop work orders earlier Tuesday from the Defense Department related to research “profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health” but that it had not otherwise received any information confirming $1 billion in frozen grants.

“We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions,” said the statement from Michael I. Kotlikoff, the university president, and other top school officials.

In an email to the Northwestern community, university president Michael Schill said Northwester had not been notified of the cuts by the US government, according to The Daily Northwestern, the campus newspaper.

Last month, the US Education Department sent letters to more than 60 universities — including Cornell and Northwestern — warning of “potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations” under federal law to “protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.” Universities have denied the allegation.

Officials have already singled out Columbia University — a focal point of the campus protests of the past year and a half — making an example of it with threats to withhold $400 million in federal funds.

As a precondition for restoring that money — along with billions more in future grants — the administration demanded unprecedented changes in university policy.

Columbia’s decision to bow to those demands, in part to salvage ongoing research projects at its labs and medical center, has been criticized by some faculty and free speech groups as capitulating to an intrusion on academic freedom.

US Federal agents have also detained some foreign student protesters from various campuses and are working to deport them.