A Columbia University student detained by Department of Homeland Security agents at a campus apartment early Thursday morning has been released, the university said.
The agents had allegedly misrepresented themselves to gain entry to the building by saying they were searching for a “missing person,” the university’s acting president Claire Shipman said in a statement. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan Borough President, said that the officers had used a “phony missing persons bulletin for a 5 year old girl” to deceive campus staff.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the student as Elmina Aghayeva, a citizen of Azerbaijan. “The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment,” a DHS official wrote in an unsigned statement.
Aghayeva, an international student on a visa, hosts a popular Instagram page which featured an image from the back of a vehicle with a caption reading, “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help.” She also posted on Instagram after her release.
Aghayeva, a senior neuroscience and political science major, filed a habeas corpus petition with a federal judge requesting release early Thursday. Hours later, Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on an unrelated matter and asked that Aghayeva be released.
Mamdani also handed the president and his chief of staff a list of four additional students who had been detained in New York, asking that their cases be dismissed, according to city hall spokesperson Joe Calvello. In a call soon after, Trump told Mamdani that Aghayeva would be released “imminently,” according to a post by the mayor on X.
The student’s detention came after months of relative calm on the campus following a string of student arrests that took place in the wake of protests surrounding the situation in Gaza, most notably former student Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained in the lobby of his dorm in March 2025.
A DHS official said that Aghayeva’s visa was terminated in 2016 for failing to attend class, and that she had no pending appeals or applications filed with the department. Columbia University would not comment on DHS’s claims.
Aghayeva’s Instagram account revolves around her life as a student, showing her getting ready routines, studying for hours in the library and giving advice on how to avoid distraction while working.
By Thursday afternoon, about 200 students, faculty and neighbors gathered to protest outside of the campus gates, holding signs reading, “Where was the signed judicial warrant, Claire?” and “Columbia did they show you a warrant?” Protesters yelled “shame!” and students spoke passionately about their fears about safety on campus.
“There’s just this accumulation of anger and a growing realization that things have to shift and that’s why I’m encouraged to see Columbia University is providing legal support for the student, which is something they did not do for our other students and should have,” said Jacqueline Klopp, a professor at Columbia’s climate school and a research scholar.
Students expressed shock and disappointment. “It just shows how much Columbia’s administration does not keep us safe,” student Aharon Dardik told Documented. “This is just another example in a very, very long line of examples that what public safety is there to protect is not its students, not its most vulnerable students, immigrant students.”
Shipman said in her statement, “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. An administrative warrant is not sufficient.”
The university announced to staff and students that starting Thursday afternoon, they would be deploying additional Public Safety patrols and would also hold two university-wide trainings on immigration law.
你知道吗？非公民办理驾照时的这个错误可能会导致选民欺诈
On Thursday, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a professors union, slammed Aghayeva’s detention by DHS as an abuse of state power.
“We are outraged by reports that Department of Homeland Security agents misrepresented themselves to gain entry to a Columbia University residential building and abduct an international student,” said AAUP president Todd Wolfson in a statement to Documented. “If these reports are accurate, this is a dangerous abuse of state power that threatens due process, undermines trust and safety on our campuses, and sends a chilling message to international students and scholars across the country.”
Anna Oakes contributed to this report.
