United States: Release of a student detained by ICE after a face-to

An NYU-Columbia student was arrested Thursday morning by five ICE agents who entered without a warrant and under false pretenses into a residence at the prestigious Columbia institution.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Thursday that Donald Trump had authorized the release of a Columbia University student held by immigration police after Mamdani reported the case to the president. The student was arrested by five ICE agents who entered without a warrant and under false pretenses at a residence of the prestigious New York institution, described Claire Shipman, the interim university president.

ICE members entered claiming to be “police officers looking for a missing child,” Shipman said in a video on X. “The agents took our student. It was a frightening situation (…) completely unacceptable for our students and staff,” added Shipman. The student is from Azerbaijan, according to the student newspaper Columbia Daily Spectator and information from the BBC.

Zohran Mamdani expressed concern to President Trump about “Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva (…) detained by ICE”. “He just informed me of her immediate release,” Mamdani added. Aghayeva later confirmed on Instagram that she had been released: “I just got out (…) I am safe.”

Earlier on Thursday, New York Mayor had announced, with a photo, that he had gone to Washington to ask Donald Trump for more federal funds to support affordable housing construction in Queens, one of the five boroughs of the most populous city in the United States.