NEW YORK — Federal immigration agents arrested a Columbia University student early Thursday, touching off campus protests and allegations that officers entered a university residence by posing as police searching for a missing child.
The student, Ellie Aghayeva, was detained hours before the government abruptly reversed course and allowed her to go free after an apparent intervention by President Donald Trump, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. In a social media post, Mamdani said he raised concerns about the arrest during an unrelated meeting with Trump, who agreed to release her immediately.
Minutes after Mamdani’s post, Aghayeva wrote on Instagram, “I am safe and okay,” saying she was in “complete shock.” Her lawyers and Columbia’s acting president, Claire Shipman, said five federal agents entered her apartment around 6 a.m. after telling staff they were police searching for a missing child. Security cameras, Shipman said, captured agents in a hallway showing photos of the alleged missing child.
Aghayeva, a senior from Azerbaijan studying neuroscience and politics who runs a large social media account with day-in-the-life and college-advice videos, has not been publicly tied to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have roiled Columbia. She posted during the arrest, “DHS illegally arrested me,” along with a photo that appeared to show her legs in the back seat of a vehicle.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Aghayeva’s student visa was terminated in 2016 for failing to attend classes and that she had been placed in removal proceedings and “released while she waits for her hearing.” DHS disputed that agents posed as New York City police officers but did not answer whether they claimed to be searching for a missing child. Her attorneys declined to provide further details about her immigration status.
The use of disguises or misrepresentations by immigration agents has drawn scrutiny recently after agents were seen posing as utility workers and other service personnel in Minnesota and elsewhere. While such tactics are legal in many cases, immigration lawyers say the ruses are increasingly common and heighten concerns about the Trump administration’s changes to enforcement tactics.
The episode highlighted an unusual rapport between Trump and Mamdani, a democratic socialist whom Trump once threatened to deport. Mamdani had been in the White House pitching a large housing proposal and also urged Trump to drop cases against several current and former students facing deportation related to campus protests over Israel.
Critics warned the arrest signaled renewed federal scrutiny of universities. Columbia agreed last year to pay more than $220 million to the administration in a settlement, and professors and staff have vowed to protect campus communities. “It’s a horrifying sign that the roving eye of the administration is turning back to Columbia,” said Michael Thaddeus, a Columbia mathematics professor and vice president of the university’s AAUP chapter. “The idea that secret police would abduct and imprison students in our midst is something we’d expect from an authoritarian regime.”
Columbia reminded residential staff not to allow federal law enforcement into university buildings without a subpoena or warrant and urged the campus to contact Public Safety immediately if DHS or ICE agents are observed conducting enforcement near campus. The university also pointed to last March’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist whose deportation case remains pending, as part of broader concerns for international students’ safety.
