US Department of Homeland Security officers took a Columbia University student into custody, sparking outrage as local officials claimed the federal agents posed as police officers — complete with fake badges — to gain entry to campus housing.
The raid was launched at the elite school’s Morningside Heights campus around 6:30 a.m. Thursday, with agents making “misrepresentations” to access the student’s apartment and take her into custody, Columbia’s acting President Claire Shipman said in a letter to the school community.
“We are working to gather more information, working to reach the family, and providing legal support.”
The operation involved an unknown number of agents, who reportedly told campus security officers they were investigating a missing persons case involving a 5-year-old girl.
The arrested student, Elmina Aghayeva, who is slated to graduate this year, wrote in a stunning post on Instagram, “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help” captioned over what appears to be a POV-style photo of a woman’s thighs from the back of a car.
“ICE arrested Elmina Aghayeva, an illegal alien from Azerbaijan, whose student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes,” a DHS spokesperson said in statement to The Post.
“The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS,” the statement concluded.
The agency did not respond to follow-up requests for comment about the claims agents presented themselves as cops on the hunt for a missing child, a tactic Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal condemned.
“ICE agents impersonated NYPD with fake badges and a phony missing persons bulletin for a 5 year old girl,” he fumed on X.
“They purposefully deceived campus housing/security to gain entry to the student’s apartment. The level of civil rights violations that took place is staggering.”
However Hoyleman-Sigal later said in a modified follow-up post that it was “unconfirmed” whether ICE agents impersonated officers.
Although it was not immediately clear why the feds detained the student, the incident echoes last year’s bust of anti-Israel activist and Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil, who ICE arrested at his university-owned apartment in March 2025 in connection to riotous protests both at Columbia and Barnard College.
Khalil, whom the government claim is a Hamas supporter, spent more than three months in a Louisiana ICE detention facility and is now slated to be deported to Algeria after a yearlong legal saga.
Shipman, whose controversial one-year tenure at the helm of the Ivy League is winding down as Jennifer Mnookin is set to replace her July 1, wrote in her letter that any law enforcement agents looking to access certain parts of campus must follow procedure.
“If law enforcement agents seek entry to non-public areas of the University, ask the agents to wait to enter any non-public areas until contacting Public Safety. Public Safety will contact the Office of the General Counsel to coordinate the University’s response,” she wrote.
“Do not allow them to enter or accept service of a warrant or subpoena.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul also ripped DHS on social media, and said she had proposed a new piece of legislation in response.
“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,” the governor wrote on X.
“I’ve proposed a bill that would ban ICE from entering sensitive locations like schools and dorms. Let’s get it passed now.”