Students are seen on the campus of Columbia University on April 14, 2025 in New York City.
Charlie Tribalew | AFP | Getty Images
Federal authorities released Columbia University student Elmina Agayeva on Thursday afternoon, hours after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered her New York City university dormitory and detained her, the Azerbaijani native said.
New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani said earlier that President Donald Trump called him and told him to release Agayeva after a meeting at the White House, and the mayor called on the president to release her.
Agayeva was arrested by ICE agents in Manhattan around 6:30 a.m.
Claire Shipman, acting president of Columbia University, accused ICE of entering the university’s grounds under false pretenses.
“Our understanding at this time is that federal agents gave false statements in order to enter the building to search for a ‘missing person’ and detained Ms. Agayeva,” Shipman said in an email obtained by CNBC.
Shipman said in an email that all law enforcement agencies require a judicial warrant or subpoena to enter housing or other non-public campus areas.
She added that employees attempting to enter private spaces on campus should wait until the school’s public safety team is contacted.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Segal said in a post on
“They intentionally deceived campus housing and security in order to gain access to student apartments,” Hoylman-Sigal wrote. “The level of civil rights violations that occurred are astonishing.”
In another email to the campus community Thursday night, Shipman claimed that when federal agents entered the building, they identified themselves as police searching for a missing child. She added that camera footage showed staff sharing photos that appeared to be of children in the hallway.
Shipman added that federal agents did not file a warrant despite repeated requests from Columbia University public safety officials. The officer also refused to call his supervisor, Shipman added.
“This was a frightening, rapidly evolving situation and completely unacceptable for our students, faculty and staff,” Shipman said in an email.
A Department of Homeland Security official told CNBC that ICE agents arrested Agayeva, whose student visa was terminated by the Obama administration in 2016, after “the building manager and her roommate allowed officers to enter the apartment.”
“She has no pending appeals or applications to DHS,” said the official who oversees ICE.
The incident comes as President Trump’s focus on immigration has become a national flashpoint.
Border Czar Tom Homan announced earlier this month that his administration would scale back a surge in immigration enforcement in Minnesota and scale back operations that send thousands of agents to the Minneapolis area.
Two Americans were killed by immigration authorities in Minnesota this year, sparking a backlash against the White House’s efforts.
Colombia has been a target of the Trump administration since he returned to office last year.
In June, the Department of Education announced that Ivy League schools do not meet accreditation standards because they “violate federal antidiscrimination laws.”
A month later, Colombia announced it would pay $200 million to the federal government to restore funding cut by the Trump administration.
Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was released in June after three months in ICE custody.
