A Columbia University student was released late Thursday after being detained for several hours by federal immigration authorities who officials said made “misrepresentations” about their identity to enter a school residence and arrest her.
Columbia Acting President Claire Shipman said in a message to students and faculty that five Department of Homeland Security agents, without any kind of warrant, gained access to the Manhattan building by claiming they were police searching for a missing child.
Columbia security cameras documented the agents in the building’s hallway showing pictures of the alleged missing child, making their way to the student’s university apartment, Shipman said. The Daily News has not independently verified the footage, and Columbia declined to make it available to media.
The student, Ellie Aghayeva, 29, is a senior at Columbia studying neuroscience and political science. She is from Azerbaijan and came to the United States on a student visa, which the Trump administration said lapsed years ago when she failed to attend her classes.
Mayor Mamdani, who was scheduled to meet with President Trump that day for unrelated reasons, said he used the opportunity to ask him to release Aghayeva and Leqaa Kordia — an adult who had participated in a Columbia pro-Palestinian protest, according to a mayoral spokesperson.
“Just got off the phone with President Trump,” Mamdani wrote on X after the unlikely confab. “He has just informed me that she will be released imminently.”
Instagram / ellharve
Columbia senior Ellie Aghayeva posted to her Instagram story on Thursday morning that she was detained by federal agents. (Instagram / ellharve)
Aghayeva announced she had been released from federal custody shortly before 4 p.m. in a story on Instagram, where she makes viral videos about her life as a Columbia student.
“I just got out a little while ago. I am safe and okay,” she wrote. “I am so sorry but I am in complete shock over what happened and my phone is blowing up with calls from reporters. I need a little bit of time to process everything. I will come back soon. But please don’t worry.”
While in detention, a lawyer for Aghayeva, Carl Hurvich of the Massachusetts law firm Brooks Law, filed a habeas petition asking a Manhattan federal judge to intervene. Judge Katherine Polk Failla barred the government from deporting Aghayeva without further action by the court, adding another layer of security after the Columbia student’s release.
Aghayeva’s arrest appeared to be the first time in nearly a year that federal immigration authorities were active on Columbia’s campus, which has been rocked by the detention of several classmates, including most famously, Mahmoud Khalil.
As recently as Wednesday, Columbia students and faculty started a “relay” hunger strike to demand more protections for international students — the latest escalation after a similar group on Feb. 5 protested ICE on Broadway and was arrested for blocking traffic.
News of Aghayeva’s detention broke Thursday morning in an initial email from Shipman to students and faculty, in which she did not name the student but raised questions about the circumstances of her arrest.
“This morning at approximately 6:30 a.m., federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia Residential building and detained a student,” wrote Shipman, who added that Columbia was providing legal support.
“Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’”
Shipman’s second message Thursday night added that after agents were already inside the apartment, “It became clear they had misrepresented themselves.” The university dispatched a school safety agent, who asked for a warrant or more time to call his superior. No warrant was produced nor time given.
“Let me be clear — misrepresenting identity and other facts to gain access to a residential building is a breach of protocol,” Shipman wrote. “All law enforcement agencies—including DHS and ICE—are obligated to follow established legal and ethical standards. And we expect those standards to be respected.”
Aghayeva was first identified by the student newspaper, Columbia Spectator.
“Dhs illegally arrested me,” she wrote in an Instagram story, appearing to be posting from the back of a vehicle. “Please help.”
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal wrote on X the missing person bulletin for a 5-year-old girl that agents had with them was “phony.”
“They purposefully deceived campus housing/security to gain entry to the student’s apartment,” Hoylman-Sigal said. “The level of civil rights violations that took place is staggering.”
The NYPD in a statement said it was not involved in the federal operation. However, federal elected officials, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), likewise accused agents of entering “without any proper warrant, while impersonating NYPD officers and under false pretenses.”
“The American people are demanding an end to the ICE lawlessness being unleashed on our communities,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Responding to an inquiry from The News, DHS did not directly address claims of misrepresentations, but said Aghayeva’s building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment, and she had no pending appeals or applications with the agency.
Not all New Yorkers were buying it: “ICE agents misled campus security,” Gov. Hochul said in a statement. “New York will not look the other way.”
Columbia became a symbol for the Trump’s immigration enforcement on college campuses last March when federal agents detained Khalil, the former graduate student and leader in the pro-Palestinian movement, in his university-owned apartment building. Khalil was held in detention for over three months, and the administration has threatened to rearrest him and deport him to Algeria.
In the months that followed, the Trump administration moved to detain several other students affiliated with Columbia, including Mohsen Mahdawi, whose deportation was blocked by an immigration judge last week, and Yunseo Chung, whose imminent arrest was blocked by a federal judge. Both had participated in the pro-Palestinian campus protests.
The mayor’s spokesperson said Mamdani during his meeting with Trump voiced his support for Khalil, Mahdawi and Chung, in addition to demanding Aghayeva’s and Kordia’s releases.
It was not immediately clear how Aghayeva ended up on federal authorities’ radar.
By the afternoon, Columbia had deployed additional public safety patrols and staffing to all residential buildings, and instructed all residential staff not to allow law enforcement in without the presence of school safety agents and legal guidance.
Outside the gates, hundreds of protesters, including Hoylman-Signal and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, descended on the sidewalk next to the Morningside Heights campus, with signs that said: “ICE LIES” and “HANDS OFF OUR CAMPUS.”
“Everyone is very nervous,” said Delfina Roybal, 29, a Columbia senior majoring in political science and a friend of Aghayeva’s. “Everyone is very scared. Students are literally hiding in their dorms right now because they’re afraid to come outside.”
Roybal defended Aghayeva from the Trump administration’s claims that she was not attending her classes.
“A lot of students at this university struggle with their mental health, with getting to class, with juggling research and homework and life and work,” Roybal said. “So, to hear that that’s one of the reasons that they are taking and kidnapping students is disgusting.”
“[Aghayeva] pretty much brings light into every room that she’s in. When Ellie arrives, you know she’s there. So to not have her on campus feels like there’s a hole missing.”
With Barry Williams, Tom Tracy and Josephine Stratman
