BREAKING: Columbia Student Arrested by DHS Released After Trump-Mamdani Meeting
Almost one year after DHS took Mahmoud Khalil, Trump immigration agents took another student.
Columbia University student Ellie Aghayeva was released on Thursday, hours after being detained by federal immigration agents who, according to the school’s president, lied their way into a university-owned residence to detain the student.
Aghayeva, a neuroscience and political science student, confirmed her release in an Instagram story, saying “I am so grateful for everyone of you. I just got out a little while ago,” she wrote. “I am safe and okay.”
The news came not long after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani tweeted that in a call with Donald Trump, the president said Aghayeva would be released imminently. Mamdani and Trump met earlier Thursday.
The news of Aghayeva’s arrest on Thursday morning was first reported by Columbia President Claire Shipman, who said Department of Homeland Security agents lied, saying they were looking for a missing person, before entering a Columbia University residence to detain the student.
“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 wrote in an email to students Thursday morning.
The arrest marked the first time in almost a year that DHS took a Columbia student from a university-owned residence. The last time was when it detained pro-Palestine campus protest leader Mahmoud Khalil.
Shipman had said that the school was working to provide legal support to the student. She reiterated that “all law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the University,” and that an administrative warrant is not sufficient.
The school did not provide further comment beyond her statement.
Prior to Mamdani’s announcement, DHS officials — who have repeatedly been found to have been lying over the past year — told Zeteo agents arrested her because her student visa terminated in 2016 for failing to attend classes. The officials said the building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment.
DHS officials also claimed Homeland Security investigators verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks. “They did NOT and would not identify themselves as NYPD,” an official claimed in a statement to Zeteo.
That contradicts what Shipman said in her Thursday morning email to students.
“Columbia University’s administration bears a profound responsibility for failing to protect its own students,” Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia student and green card holder who was detained by federal immigration agents at a citizenship interview last April before being later released, told Zeteo.
“When ICE targeted students and raided Columbia residential housing, the administration chose silence over action and did not file suit against the government to defend the students,” Mahdawi added. “Columbia is an institution that has betrayed its commitment to academic freedom and human rights. Inaction in such moments is not neutrality. It is abandonment.”
The arrest came as the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers continue ongoing bargaining with the university. Their demands include protection from ICE, which the school has thus far rejected.
“Frankly, given the way that CU staff have facilitated the entry of ICE and law enforcement into Columbia’s residences, I think students and workers would be safer and find more support off of Columbia’s campus than anywhere near it,” said Sohum, a member of the SWC bargaining committee, who prefers to only go by their first name.
Just on Wednesday, students rallied on campus to demand stronger protections for international students and for the school to declare itself a sanctuary campus.
Hours later, DHS agents entered a campus building and took a student.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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Check out more from Zeteo:
What happened to Mahmoud Khalil after the recent court order? Is he still with his family in the US?
wow. just WOW. Mamdani!