ICE agents said to have posed as police, a tactic some fear could erode trust in real cops

NEW YORK– The 911 call came in at 6:32 a.m. Thursday: two “suspicious” men wearing dark clothing were lingering inside a Columbia University residential building.

But when New York Police officers were dispatched to the scene, they encountered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the middle of an unusually complex operation.

According to a statement later released by Columbia, the officers entered the building posing as police officers searching for a 5-year-old child – going so far as to present a “missing child” flyer to a campus security officer.

The ruse allowed them to go to the apartment of Ellie Aghayeva, an Azerbaijani international student who immigration authorities said had overstayed her visa. NYPD officers arrived after the men entered his apartment, a department spokesperson said. They confirmed they were federal agents, then quickly left the building.

The arrest sparked widespread censure and calls for an investigation from Democrats, as well as a surprising intervention from President Donald Trump. The Republican informed New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani that Aghayeva was being released shortly after meeting with the Democratic mayor on Thursday.

As new details emerge, the operation also threatens to open a divide between the city’s police department and ICE, whose agents are increasingly donning disguises as utility workers, delivery drivers and other uniformed professionals to carry out Trump’s sweeping deportation campaign.

While such tactics are not illegal, former police officers said the apparent false claims in Columbia represented a startling escalation, one that could seriously shake public confidence during the next emergency.

“If the police are truly looking for a child in danger, people will now be more hesitant to help,” said Michael Alcazar, a retired New York Police Department hostage negotiator. “Almost immediately, this kind of subterfuge by ICE is going to make the police’s job more difficult.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, disputed parts of the university’s account, saying the federal agents “identified themselves verbally and visibly wore badges around their necks” and were allowed into the building by a property manager.

McLaughlin did not respond to repeated questions about whether officers used the appearance of a missing child to enter the apartment.

Claire Shipman, the university’s interim president, said Thursday that security cameras had “captured the officers in the hallway showing photos of the presumed missing child,” adding that the situation was “completely unacceptable.”

Columbia has so far refused to release these images.

The NYPD also declined to share body camera footage of its response. A department spokesperson said the agents followed the law by not interfering in an active federal investigation.

Aghayeva’s arrest sparked protests in Columbia, as well as a sense of fear and confusion.

Her friends said she was in her final semester on an international student visa, studying neuroscience and politics. In an emergency motion filed Thursday, her lawyers wrote that she had not been given a reason for her arrest.

A DHS spokesperson said Aghayeva’s visa was terminated in 2016 for failing to attend classes. She is still the subject of removal proceedings despite her release, the spokesperson said.

Jeffrey Fagan, a Columbia law professor who studies policing, said research has shown that deceptive police tactics are especially likely to harm law enforcement’s legitimacy when they result in an arrest that is “perceived as unjustified.”

“Anyone who looks at this will immediately think it’s unjustified,” he said. “So this will erode trust in an affected community the next time officers need cooperation.”

Peter Moskos, a criminal justice professor at John Jay University and a former Baltimore City police officer, agrees. He noted that sanctuary policies were originally intended to enhance public safety by building trust between immigrant communities and police.

“The idea is you can trust the cops and call them when you need to and know you won’t get kicked out,” he said. “But ICE seems to be doing everything it can to break trust.”