On the morning of Thursday, February 26, Columbia University student Elmina “Ellie” Aghayeva, originally from Azerbaijan, was arrested in New York by ICE agents who entered her off-campus residential building without a warrant.

Columbia’s interim president, Claire Shipman, said security cameras captured the agents in the hallway showing photos of a missing child, the false reason used to gain access to the building. Aghayeva posted about her arrest early that morning on Instagram, writing: “The Department of Homeland Security illegally arrested me. Please help me.”

The first to take action to denounce the arrest were the student’s friends, who organized a rally at the university entrance on Thursday afternoon, attended by about 200 people.

Elmina Aghayeva’s release came shortly after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appealed directly to President Trump during his second visit to the White House since his historic election victory in November.

“I just spoke on the phone with President Trump. I expressed my concern about the detention of Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva, who was arrested by ICE this morning. The president has just informed me that she will be released immediately,“ the New York mayor later wrote on X. Columbia University confirmed the news in a post, saying it was ”relieved and thrilled by the student’s release.”

Zohran Mamdani also gave White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles a list of four current and former students targeted by federal immigration authorities and asked the administration to help close their cases. They are Mahmoud Khalil, Yunseo Chung, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Leqaa Kordia, all of whom were arrested after participating in pro-Palestinian protests. Leqaa Kordia is the only one still in prison, almost a year after her arrest, in an ICE prison in Texas.

Before Mamdani’s intervention, New York State Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul had also harshly criticized the ICE raid on a university campus and called for the student’s release. “No one should disappear at the hands of the government. No student should be taken away from their dormitory under pretenses. These incidents require an independent investigation and real accountability. New York will not look the other way.”

Sources:
Democracy Now!
The New York Times