Columbia says ICE agents used false pretenses to enter a university residence and detain a student. Here’s what we know

By Emma Tucker, Alaa Elassar, CNN

(CNN) — Ellie Aghayeva had documented an intensive, 10-hour study session in the Columbia University library Wednesday night, sharing with her sizeable social media following how she prepares for an exam and conducts research.

Little did she know at the time, she would spend roughly the same number of hours in federal immigration detention the next day.

Aghayeva, a senior at the university, was taken into custody by agents from the Department of Homeland Security at a Columbia-owned residential building in New York City at approximately 6:30 a.m. Thursday, university officials said. About nine hours later, she posted on her Instagram account she had been released.

University officials claimed the agents misrepresented their purpose in order to access the building, entering “without any kind of warrant” and using the false pretense of searching for a missing child. DHS said they were targeting Aghayeva because she is an undocumented immigrant “whose student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes.”

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani raised Aghayeva’s detention with President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House Thursday, saying shortly after that Trump had informed him she would be released.

As uncertainty continues to shroud the circumstances of her detainment, here’s what we do and don’t know about the case:

Who is Ellie Aghayeva?

Aghayeva is an international student from Azerbaijan, double majoring in neuroscience and political science, according to the American Association of University Professors.

With more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, she has built a sizable social media following, regularly posting about her library study sessions, as well as her lifestyle and productivity habits.

Aghayeva shared news of her detention on Instagram Thursday, showing a photo of just her legs with the caption: “DHS illegally arrested me. Please help.” The post was deleted after her release.

Aghayeva later shared on Instagram she had been released, saying she was “safe and okay,” and on her way home. “I am in complete shock over what happened … I need a little bit of time to process everything I will come back soon. But please don’t worry,” she wrote.

A friend of Aghayeva, Sabah Bari, described her as a “highly motivated” and “extremely intelligent” person, who is involved in student organizations, academically accomplished and “very funny.”

Aghayeva is on track to graduate in May, said Bari, a student of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Agents entered under false pretenses, university says

The university alleges the federal agents who detained Aghayeva made “misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person,’” according to Columbia University’s Acting President Claire Shipman in a letter to the campus community.

The agents entered the residential building “without any kind of warrant” and security cameras “captured the agents in the hallway showing pictures of the alleged missing child,” Shipman said in a later video statement.

A public safety officer arrived as “it became clear” the agents had misrepresented themselves. The officer “asked multiple times for a warrant, which was not produced, and asked for time to call his boss, which was not given,” she said.

Shipman emphasized law enforcement officers must present a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the university, including residence halls, classrooms and buildings requiring Columbia University ID card access. An administrative warrant, she wrote, is not sufficient.

“All law enforcement agencies – including DHS and ICE – are obligated to follow established legal and ethical standards. And we expect those standards to be respected,” she said in a statement following Aghayeva’s release.

“This was a frightening and fast-moving situation and utterly unacceptable for our students and staff,” she said.

DHS claims her student visa was terminated

DHS confirmed to CNN that ICE arrested Aghayeva, “whose student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes.”

“The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS,” the DHS statement read.

When asked by CNN whether the agents misrepresented themselves as searching for a missing person, the agency replied, “Homeland Security Investigators verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks. They did NOT and would not identify themselves as NYPD.”

A spokesperson for DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said Aghayeva had been placed in removal proceedings and was “released while she waits for her hearing,” according to the Associated Press.

CNN has reached out to DHS and Aghayeva’s lawyer for further information.

NYC mayor appealed to Trump

Aghayeva’s detention happened the same day Mamdani was meeting with Trump in Washington to discuss his housing proposal. The mayor said he raised her detention with the president.

“I shared my concerns,” Mamdani wrote on X, shortly after their meeting, adding the president told him in a follow-up phone call, “She will be released imminently.”

Other elected New York officials also condemned the Columbia student’s detention and the conduct of the ICE agents.

“Let’s be clear about what happened: ICE agents didn’t have the proper warrant, so they lied to gain access to a student’s private residence,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement on X. Hochul has previously proposed legislation that would bar ICE from entering sensitive locations such as schools and dormitories.

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the dean of the New York congressional delegation, and Assemblymember Micah Lasher said in a joint statement they were “disgusted and outraged” and labeled the ICE agents’ actions as dangerous and fear-inducing.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a former undocumented immigrant, said students and faculty “should not fear for their safety in their dorm rooms, the classroom, or anywhere else on campus,” and described the incident as part of what he called the Trump administration’s “lawless actions.”

She isn’t the first Columbia student detained

Aghayeva’s arrest is the latest in a series of high-profile detentions by DHS at the Ivy League school. Like her, Palestinian activist and Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil was also taken into custody by federal agents at his campus apartment nearly a year ago.

Khalil spent more than 100 days detained, missing the birth of his first child, and now faces the looming possibility of rearrest and deportation to Algeria or Syria.

Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria before going on to graduate from Columbia, had played a prominent role negotiating on behalf of pro-Palestinian protesters at the university.

Another Columbia University student, Ranjani Srinivasan, was also detained in March 2025 amid pro-Palestinian protests at Hamilton Hall, even though she maintains she did not participate in the protest.

Srinivasan, then 37, an Indian national and Fulbright Scholarship recipient, said she was targeted for exercising her right to free speech, and the experience forced her to leave the country out of fear of being taken into custody.

DHS officials identified her as one of several Columbia students targeted for immigration action under the Trump administration’s crackdown on international students involved in protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“While details are still emerging, reporting suggests ICE agents have again flouted the law to rip yet another Columbia University student from campus as part of the Trump administration’s continued attack on universities and immigrants,” the American Civil Liberties Union in New York said in a statement to CNN.

What can agents legally do?

Without a warrant, federal agents can only enter campus areas of Columbia University that are open to the public such as outdoor walkways, according to CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

They have no legal right to enter residences or restricted university buildings without “specific legal authorization,” which would be a judicial warrant signed by an independent judge or magistrate but not an immigration official, Jackson said.

Immigration officials, he added, typically sign administrative warrants that may note immigration violations and authorize detention but “do not allow searches and seizures on private property.”

Columbia’s president has specified that an administrative warrant is “not sufficient” to access the university’s non-public areas, and that federal agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena.

“The remedy for transgressing the law by entering private property without a warrant would be the release of the person improperly detained,” Jackson said.

Furthermore, tactics that include misrepresentation to gain access would be illegal and against the Constitution, said Jackson.

In the case of Aghayeva, it appears the law was “flagrantly violated,” which he says has parallels to the cases of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Khalil.

In a scathing opinion last month, the federal judge who ordered the release of Liam – an Ecuadorian preschooler who was held in a Texas ICE facility – admonished “the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence.”

“The courts can ultimately provide justice, but is a long, hard road — and one that would not need to be taken — if the Trump Administration had a modicum of respect for the law,” Jackson argued.

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