Columbia student arrested by DHS agents who posed as police officers | Columbia University
A Columbia University student was arrested Thursday by federal immigration officers who misrepresented themselves as New York police officers searching for a missing child in order to enter a residential building to make the arrest.
Claire Shipman, acting president of the elite institution in New York City, wrote in a statement sent to the broader Columbia community on Thursday that the university was working to gather more information about the incident early that morning.
He added that the university is working to reach the family and providing legal support.
Shipman did not identify the student, but multiple sources identified her as Ellie Aghayeva, an undergraduate student. posted a photo The photo on her Instagram story, which showed her legs presumably in a vehicle, included the following message: “DHS arrested me illegally. Please help.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), confirmed the student’s identity but maintained that he was no longer a student.
“ICE arrested Elmina Aghayeva, an illegal alien from Azerbaijan whose student visa was terminated in 2016 for failure to attend classes during the Obama administration,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The building manager and roommate allowed officers into the apartment. They have no objections or appeals pending with DHS.”
Shortly after Columbia’s announcement, Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal wrote in an op-ed: social media post “ICE agents impersonated the NYPD with fake badges and a fake missing persons bulletin for a 5-year-old girl,” referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
“They deliberately deceived campus housing/security to gain access to the student’s apartment,” he added. “The level of civil rights violations that are occurring is staggering.”
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said in a statement that the department had “no involvement in the federal operation.”
After Aghayeva was detained, her friends at the university frantically reached out to local authorities for help. They said he was in his final semester at Columbia and was majoring in neuroscience and political science.
“ICE is at my house. They’re trying to take me away,” Aghayeva posted an urgent message to a group chat on Thursday, according to a request for help sent to local authorities by Aghayeva’s friends and shared with the Guardian. The students then contacted a building security guard who they said facilitated federal agents’ access to Aghayeva’s apartment.
Eli Northrup, an attorney who works as a public defender and is running for office in the state legislature representing the District of Columbia, spoke to some fellow students Thursday morning and criticized what he described as Columbia’s lack of security.
“This is a massive institutional failure by Columbia, whose number one priority is protecting its students,” Northrup wrote in a message to the Guardian. “No public safety officer should allow any law enforcement officer into their premises without a thorough review. They must do everything in their power to secure Ellie’s immediate release. We will not stop fighting until Ellie is released.”
The arrest comes nearly a year after campus rioting after immigration authorities detained Colombian students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both Palestinians with valid immigration status, in an effort to quell opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Trump administration detained them and other foreign academics who were outspoken in the cause of Palestinian rights but did not charge them with any crimes. The government argued that his advocacy posed a threat to US national security.
In a scathing opinion issued in September, a Boston federal judge found their detention was unconstitutional and designed to chill speech.
Thursday’s incident sent new shockwaves through the university campus. Dozens of students and faculty gathered outside the university’s gates for an emergency protest Thursday afternoon, calling for Aghayeva’s release and condemning Columbia for allowing federal agents into its facilities.
in a common place expressionNew York city council president Julie Menin and council majority leader Shaun Abreu condemned the student’s detention.
“ICE has no place in our schools and universities,” they wrote. “These activities do not make our city or our country safer; on the contrary, they fuel insecurity and danger.”
Brad Lander, a former New York City supervisor who was arrested by ICE agents while escorting immigrants to court last year, also condemned the detention.
“Once again, ICE uses blatantly illegal subterfuge to bypass judicial warrant requirements and kidnap a student. These are the tactics of the brownshirts,” Lander wrote in an op-ed. social media post. “That’s why I’ve been calling for the abolition of ICE for a long time. And why Congress shouldn’t give them another dime. This lawlessness needs to end.”
A spokesman for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mamdani made an unannounced trip to Washington on Thursday to meet Donald Trump.
