NEW YORK — Federal immigration agents arrested a Columbia University student early Thursday, touching off campus protests and accusations that officers entered a university residence by pretending to be police searching for a missing child. Hours after Ellie Aghayeva was taken into custody, she was abruptly released following an apparent intervention by President Donald Trump.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a social media post that during an unrelated meeting with Trump he raised concerns about the arrest, and the president agreed to free her immediately. Aghayeva posted to Instagram soon after, writing, “I am safe and okay” and saying she was in “complete shock.”
The episode highlighted the unusual dynamic between Trump and Mamdani, a democratic socialist whom Trump had once threatened with deportation. Mamdani said he also urged Trump to drop cases against several current and former students facing deportation over their roles in pro-Palestinian protests while he was pitching a major housing proposal.
Aghayeva, a senior from Azerbaijan studying neuroscience and politics, is not publicly linked to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations. She is a content creator with more than 100,000 social media followers who posts day-in-the-life videos and guidance for immigrant students.
According to a petition filed by her attorneys and a statement from Columbia’s acting president, Claire Shipman, five federal agents entered her apartment around 6 a.m. by saying they were looking for a missing child. “The agents gained entry by stating they were police searching for a missing child,” Shipman said, noting that security cameras recorded agents in a hallway showing photos of the alleged missing child. Aghayeva messaged followers that “DHS illegally arrested me,” and a photo posted with her message appeared to show her legs in a vehicle’s back seat.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Aghayeva’s student visa had been terminated in 2016 for failing to attend classes. Her lawyers said she entered the U.S. on a visa in or around 2016 but declined to provide further details about her immigration status. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Aghayeva was placed in removal proceedings and was “released while she waits for her hearing.” McLaughlin disputed claims that agents posed as New York City police but did not address whether they said they were searching for a missing child.
The use of disguises or misrepresentations by immigration officials has drawn scrutiny recently after agents were observed posing as utility workers and other service personnel in Minneapolis and other cities. While such tactics are generally legal, immigration lawyers say they are becoming more common and intensify concerns about changes in enforcement under the Trump administration.
Trump has recently stepped up criticism of several universities, including Harvard and UCLA. Faculty and students worry the arrest signals renewed federal scrutiny of Columbia after the university agreed earlier to a settlement of more than $220 million with the administration last summer. “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 chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “The idea that secret police would abduct and imprison students in our midst is something we’d expect from an authoritarian regime.”
Students and faculty had urged Columbia to better protect international students after the March arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist whose deportation case remains pending. In an email to the campus community, Shipman reminded residential staff not to allow federal law enforcement into university buildings without a warrant or subpoena and advised anyone who encounters DHS/ICE agents on or near campus to contact Public Safety immediately and not to let agents enter non-public areas or accept service of legal papers.
