ICE agents pretended to be New York Police Department officers to get into Columbia housing, a member of the New York city council said.
A Columbia student detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday morning has been released from federal immigration custody.
Elmina Aghayeva, a neuroscience researcher and influencer from Azerbaijan, took to social media to thank her supporters hours after her arrest caused an uproar on campus.
“I am so grateful for everyone of you,” Aghayeva wrote in an Instagram story posted on Thursday afternoon. “I just got out a little while ago. I am safe and okay.”
A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed Aghayeva’s release, which came after Mamdani discussed the issue in a meeting with President Donald Trump earlier in the day. Mamdani said on X that Trump had called him following the meeting to say that Aghayeva was set to be released.
“The Mayor’s Office on Thursday morning asked that ICE not move her out of New York City, so she could have her day in court here, and ICE cooperated with the request,” the spokesperson told The Intercept. “Mayor Mamdani then raised the issue directly with the President at the White House, and shortly after their meeting, the President informed him over the phone that Aghayeva would be released.”
Federal agents detained Aghayeva at university housing early on Thursday morning, according to interim Columbia President Claire Shipman. In an email to the university community, Shipman wrote early Thursday that agents with the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia residential housing building and detained the student at approximately 6:30 a.m.
“??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 said in her email.
Students rallying to get the student released collected information about the detention and, in a letter to New York City Council Member Shaun Abreu, said they had learned from a security guard at the building that federal agents represented themselves as members of the New York Police Department and Columbia security officials.
“From what was relayed to us, the individuals who arrived were presented as NYPD alongside Columbia Public Safety,” the students wrote in the letter to Abreu, which was obtained by The Intercept.
At a protest outside the gates of the university on Thursday afternoon, Abreu alleged that the agents had masqueraded as NYPD cops.
“I consider it to be very much confirmed that they pretended to be NYPD officers in search of missing persons,” Abreu told The Intercept. “So they used false pretenses and they used straight-up lies to get the person they were looking for.”
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Zohran Mamdani Kept Columbia Student in New York — Then Phoned With Trump to Secure Her Release
