President Donald Trump was seemingly so charmed by New York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani that he ordered the release of someone his own Department of Homeland Security has called an “illegal alien.”
Mamdai said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be releasing Columbia University undergraduate Ellie Aghayeva from ICE detainment after he called the president.
“Just got off the phone with President Trump,” Mamdani posted. “In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elaina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning.”
“He has just informed me that she will be released imminently,” the post added.
Trump and Mamdani also met earlier on Thursday, but the details of the meeting have not been disclosed. The mayor confirmed the meeting in a social media post
Aghayeva was detained by federal immigration officers in her university-owned apartment at 6:30 am on Thursday. Several hours later, she confirmed that she had been released from ICE detention and was going back to her apartment.
“I am safe and okay,” she wrote on her Instagram, adding, “I am so sorry but I am in complete shock over what happened.”
Trump releasing Aghayeva at the request of Mamdani is a reversal of the postion his own administration.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, DHS called Aghayeva “an illegal alien from Azerbaijan” and said her student visa “was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes.”
Aghayeva, a social media influencer with over 100,000 followers, began posting about her studies at Columbia University in 2024. It appears she has been studying in the U.S., previously in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2021, according to her Instagram.
Officials at Columbia University and local lawmakers in New York have said that to access Aghayeva’s dorm, ICE posed as cops with the New York City Police Department and claimed they were looking for a missing child.
Columbia University President Claire Shipman said that “federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’”
“It is important to reiterate that all law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the University, including housing, classrooms, and areas requiring CUID swipe access,” her statement continued. “An administrative warrant is not sufficient.”
DHS told the Daily Beast that ICE “did NOT and would not identify themselves as NYPD,” and that they had properly identified themselves.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the DHS and the White House for further clarity on Aghayeva’s detainment and release.
Mamdani’s call to the president to release Aghayeva, which goes directly against the Trump administration’s hardline immigration tactics, is just the latest instance in which Trump has been flattered by Mamdani.
During his State of the Union address, Trump called Mamdani the “new communist mayor of New York City,” noted that “he’s a nice guy, actually, speaking to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy.”
Trump was especially enamored with Mamdani during their first meeting at the Oval Office after Mamdani’s electoral victory last year. The president posted several flattering photos of Mamdani —including a solo shot — after the pair’s chummy meeting.
“One of the things I would have loved to be someday is the mayor of New York,” Trump told Mamdani in November. “And especially now, because I think you’re at really a turning point one way or the other. It can go great. Or it can go in a different direction, and I think you really have a chance to make it great.”
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