A Columbia University student who was detained early Thursday morning at her campus residence by immigration agents said she has been released.
DHS confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Elmina Aghayeva, who is from Azerbaijan. The agency said her student visa was terminated in 2016 “for failing to attend classes.”
“The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment,” the DHS statement said.
Aghayeva wrote on Instagram Thursday afternoon that she had been released and was on her way home. "I am safe and okay," she wrote, adding that she was in "complete shock over what happened."
Columbia University’s acting President Claire Shipman said in a letter that federal agents entered a residence hall at around 6:30 a.m. and detained the student. The letter added that the university’s administration is working to contact the family and provide legal support.
“Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person,’” Shipman wrote.
A representative from DHS said that its agents wore badges around their necks and verbally identified themselves.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is currently in D.C., wrote in a post on X that he spoke with President Donald Trump over concerns on the arrest.
“He has just informed me that she will be released imminently,” Mamdani wrote shortly before Aghayeva shared news of her release.
Aghayeva is an international student with a visa, according to a statement released by her friends through the faculty organization, the American Association of University Professors. She is in her senior year at Columbia, majoring in neuroscience and political science.
The statement added that Aghayeva was taken from her Columbia housing building on West 121st Street.
Aghayeva's lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition with the Southern District of New York on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News. It states that she entered the United States in or around 2016 on a visa and that no reason had been given for her detention.
An attorney for Aghayeva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several student groups, including Columbia Student Apartheid Divest, called for an emergency rally “to protest the detention of an undergrad from a Columbia building.” The demonstration outside of the Columbia University gates drew about 100 people, according to the Columbia Spectator.
In the letter, Shipman reminded the campus community that law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access nonpublic areas of the school. If law enforcement requests access, Shipman said, students, faculty and staff should ask the agents to wait and then contact the university’s public safety office.
“Do not allow them to enter or accept service of a warrant or subpoena,” Shipman urged.
“An administrative warrant is not sufficient” to access nonpublic areas of the campus, Shipman added.
NBC News previously reported that an internal memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in May said agents are allowed to forcibly enter a home using an administrative warrant if a judge has issued a “final order of removal.” That is a departure from previous norms, in which a warrant signed by a judge or magistrate was necessary for agents to forcibly enter homes.
