NEW YORK — A Columbia University student was arrested Thursday by federal immigration agents who claimed to be searching for a “missing person” in order to gain access to a campus apartment, according to her attorneys and the school’s president.
Hours after she was taken into custody, though, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a social media post that he had discussed the arrest during an unrelated meeting with President Trump, who agreed to release the student “immediately.”
The student, Ellie Aghayeva, is a senior from Azerbaijan studying neuroscience and political science. A self-described content creator, she has amassed a large social media following by sharing day-in-the-life videos and tips for navigating college as an immigrant.
Around 7 a.m., Aghayeva posted a message to her more than 100,000 followers on Instagram: “DHS illegally arrested me. Please help.” A photo accompanying the post appeared to show the backseat of a vehicle.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Aghayeva’s arrest and said her student visa had been terminated in 2016 for failure to attend classes. The spokesperson didn’t respond to questions about when or if she would be released.
In an emergency petition, attorneys for Aghayeva said she had entered the country on a visa in or around 2016. They said she was taken into custody early Thursday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who didn’t have a warrant but “represented they were searching for a missing person to gain entry” to the university-owned apartment.
She was being held at the federal detention center in lower Manhattan, the lawyers wrote. They declined to provide additional comment, including details about her immigration status.
In an email shared with students and staff, the university’s acting president, Claire Shipman, said that federal agents had entered a residential building around 6:30 a.m., claiming they were seeking a missing person.
She said the university was in the process of reaching out to the student’s family and providing legal support.
The use of disguises or other misrepresentations by immigration authorities has drawn attention in recent months, after federal agents were seen posing as utility workers and other service employees in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
The practice is legal, in most cases. But immigration attorneys say such ruses are becoming increasingly common, adding to concerns about the Trump administration’s dramatic reshaping of immigration enforcement tactics nationwide.
The incident comes nearly one year after federal agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, then a Columbia graduate student and Palestinian activist, inside his university-owned housing. Khalil is out on bail, fighting his own deportation case.
In the months after his arrest, many students called on the university to do more to secure the campus from federal immigration enforcement.
Columbia currently requires that all law enforcement agents have a judicial warrant or subpoena to access nonpublic areas of the university, including housing.
In her email, Shipman said students should not allow law enforcement agents to enter nonpublic areas of the university and should not accept service of a warrant or subpoena, but should call campus public safety instead.
Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.
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