Department of Homeland Security agents allegedly detained a Columbia University student early Thursday morning after making “misrepresentations to gain entry” to a residence hall, the school said.
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. “We are working to gather more details.”
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 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 121 Street.
Aghayeva appears to have filed a habeas corpus petition with the Southern District of New York on Thursday. NBC News has not reviewed the petition, and her lawyer 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.
Gov. Kathy Hochul mentioned the alleged incident this morning, saying the details were still unclear. But Hochul said that if the accusations about misrepresentations are true, “that just goes to prove our point that this is an organization that is out of control.”
“They need to be refocused, reorganized, retrained, so start over, because it’s just not working,” Hochul said.
In a post on X, Hochul also alleged that “ICE agents didn’t have the proper warrant, so they lied to gain access to a student’s private residence.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described the allegations as "unacceptable" in a post on X. He said his office was working closely with Columbia and authorities on the matter.
"It is outrageous that ICE agents falsely represented themselves to arrest a Columbia graduate student by entering university-owned housing without a warrant," Schumer wrote.
Columbia University has become a political flashpoint over the past two years amid protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, high-profile ICE arrests and criticism of the university from President Donald Trump himself.
The Trump administration ordered the cancellation of $400 million in federal grants last year after accusing the university of failing to act “in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
A letter was sent to the Columbia University trustees and former interim president laying out conditions to restore its federal funding, which included a ban on masks on campus and the comprehensive reform of its admissions “to confirm with federal law and policy.”
The university acquiesced to the demands last year to restore its grant funding. It also agreed to pay a $200 million settlement to the government to resolve allegations that it violated anti-discrimination laws.
According to the university, the agreement preserved “Columbia’s autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions, and academic decision-making.”
Homeland Security agents also executed search warrants on two Columbia University residences last year, though no arrests were made at the time. The search came days after Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student at the time, was arrested by immigration authorities.
Khalil was released in June after three months in immigration detention, following widespread protests and a legal battle to keep the legal permanent resident in the United States. Attorneys for Khalil argued that his detention was a targeted retaliation for Khalil’s pro-Palestinian views and, therefore, unconstitutional.
His status remains uncertain after an appeals court overturned a lower court ruling last month, saying Khalil had to continue to move through the immigration court process before challenging whether the detention violated his rights.
