Detained Columbia student released after Mamdani talks with Trump | Columbia University

The Columbia University student arrested and detained Thursday morning by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been released, according to social media. Student Elmina Aghayeva posted a story on her Instagram account in which she confirmed her release. “I just came out a short time ago,” the statement said. “I’m safe and well. In a great otw [on the way] House.”

In her message, Aghayeva said she was currently inundated with calls from journalists. She writes: “I need some time to process everything. I’ll be back soon. But don’t worry.”

Aghayeva’s post came shortly after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that Donald Trump had agreed to release Aghayeva, following an unannounced meeting between the two leaders.

“In our previous meeting, I raised concerns regarding Colombian student Elmina Aghayeva, who was arrested by ICE this morning,” Mamdani wrote on X. Trump then informed the mayor that she would be “released imminently.”

Aghayeva was arrested early Thursday morning by federal immigration agents who allegedly posed as New York City police officers searching for a missing child in order to enter a residential building to make her arrest.

Earlier Thursday, interim president of the elite New York institution, Claire Shipman, wrote in a statement sent to the broader Columbia community that the university was working to reach the student’s family and provide them with legal support.

Shipman did not identify the student, but several sources identified her as Ellie Aghayeva, who posted a photo that appeared to show her own legs, possibly in a vehicle, in an Instagram story with the message: “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help me.”

Shortly after Columbia’s statement, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal wrote in a social media post that “ICE agents impersonated the NYPD with fake badges and a fake missing 5-year-old girl report.”

“They deliberately deceived housing and campus security to gain access to the student’s apartment,” he added. “The level of civil rights violations that have taken place is staggering. »

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency, denied that agents impersonated the New York Police Department. “The Homeland Security investigators identified themselves verbally and visibly wore badges around their necks,” they said in a statement. “They did NOT identify themselves and did not want to identify themselves as the NYPD.”

DHS also confirmed the student’s identity but appeared to suggest she was no longer a student.

“ICE arrested Elmina Aghayeva, an illegal alien from Azerbaijan, whose student visa was terminated in 2016 during the Obama administration for failing to attend classes,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The building manager and her roommate let the agents into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or requests with DHS.”

An NYPD spokesperson said in a statement that the department was not involved in the arrest.

After Aghayeva’s arrest, university friends frantically appealed to local authorities for help. They said she was in her last semester at Columbia and was majoring in neuroscience and political science.

According to a request for help sent to local authorities by Aghayeva’s friends, which was also shared with the Guardian, Aghayeva sent an urgent message in a group chat on Thursday saying: “ICE is at my house. They are trying to take me away.” The students then contacted a building security officer who they said facilitated federal agents’ access to Aghayeva’s apartment.

Eli Northrup, an attorney who works as a public defender and is running for state Assembly representing the District of Columbia, spoke Thursday morning with some of the students’ friends and criticized what he called a security lapse in Columbia.

“This is a massive institutional failure on the part of Columbia, whose number one priority must be to protect its students,” Northrup wrote in a message to the Guardian. “No public safety officer should admit any law enforcement into their buildings without thorough vetting.

His criticism of Columbia was echoed by Shayoni Mitra, a Barnard professor who lives in the neighborhood and said local residents have been training for months to protect their neighbors from ICE.

“We’re trying to keep each other and our neighbors safe. But why aren’t Columbia’s public safety officers trained to stop ICE?” she told the Guardian. “It is simply not enough for Chairman Shipman to claim that the officers made false statements to enter the building. Why has no one asked to see a signed court warrant?”

The arrest came nearly a year after campus upheaval after immigration officials arrested Colombian students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both Palestinians with valid immigration status, as part of a crackdown on dissent against Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Trump administration arrested them and other foreign academics whom it did not accuse of any crime but who had spoken out openly in support of Palestinian rights. In a scathing opinion delivered in September, a federal judge in Boston ruled that their detention was unconstitutional and intended to paralyze speech.

Thursday’s incident sent new shock waves through the university campus. Dozens of students and faculty gathered Thursday afternoon for an emergency protest outside the university gates, calling for Aghayeva’s release and condemning Columbia for allowing federal agents onto their premises.

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, issued a statement accusing ICE of lying in order to capture Aghayeva. “Let’s be clear about what happened: ICE agents didn’t have the proper warrant, so they lied their way into a student’s private residence,” she wrote on

Brad Lander, a former New York City comptroller who was arrested by ICE agents while escorting immigrants to court last year, also condemned the detention.

“Once again, ICE is using blatantly illegal tricks to circumvent judicial warrant requirements and kidnap a student. These are Brownshirt tactics,” Lander wrote in a social media post. “This is why I have long called for the abolition of ICE. And why Congress should not give them another cent. This lawlessness must end.”