Columbia Student Detained by ICE Released After Mamdani-Trump Meeting

The Columbia student arrested by ICE agents inside her dorm was released hours later following an intervention from President Donald Trump, who was apparently acting at the behest of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who met with him at the White House earlier in the afternoon.

Ellie Aghayeva, an Azerbaijani undergraduate student of neuroscience and political science, posted to Instagram that she’d been released from ICE custody shortly before 4 p.m. and was in an Uber headed back to the Morningside Heights campus.

“I am so grateful for everyone of you. I just got out a little while ago. I am safe and ok,” she wrote in an Instagram story, which deletes after 24 hours. “I am in complete shock over what happened...”

Mamdani also gave Trump the names of four other immigrant students targeted by the Trump administration for deportation related to their criticism of Israel, asking that the president halt attempts to deport them, according to City Hall. It’s unclear how Trump responded to that request.

Aghayeva’s arrest early Thursday morning rocked the Columbia campus and prompted a spontaneous protest outside its gates by faculty and students angered that university security let DHS officers into her dorm without a warrant.

Columbia University Acting President Claire Shipman said agents “misrepresented” themselves and said they were investigating a missing person in order to gain entry.

A DHS spokesperson disputed that account. “The Homeland Security Investigators verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks,” the spokesperson said. “They did NOT and would not identify themselves as NYPD.”

DHS didn’t return a request for additional comment after Aghayeva’s release.

As Mamdani brought up her detainment with Trump, he handed a list of four additional people to the president’s chief of staff asking for their dismissal as well, said Joe Calvello, a spokesperson for Mamdani. That list included Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist and Columbia alum; Yunseo Chung; Mohsen Mahdawi and Leqaa Kordia, who never studied at Columbia but was arrested at campus protests of 2024, and remains in ICE detention in Texas nearly a year after her arrest.

“Shortly after the mayor left the White House, he received a call from President Trump who let him know the student who was detained this morning will be released,” Calvello said, while declining to comment on the identity of the other students, or if they were still in custody.

Mamdani had flown to Washington, D.C. early Thursday in an unannounced meeting with Trump, who asked that it be private, the spokesperson said.

After the pair met in November, the president told the then mayor-elect to come up with ambitious plans for housing.

“The last time the president and the mayor met, the president asked him to come back with some big ideas of how we can build things together here in New York City, and that’s what he did today,” Calvello said Thursday.

“We proposed a project with an estimated 12,000 units,” he said.

It would be one of the largest housing projects in the last 50 years, Calvello noted, adding that President Trump was “very enthusiastic” about the idea.

The proposal is for Sunnyside Yard, an ambitious plan to build 12,000 apartments along with new parks and schools. It was first introduced under Mayor Bill de Blasio and requires federal funding to build over rail yards.

A smiling Trump held up two newspaper covers brought by Mamdani’s team. One was the infamous “Ford to City: Drop Dead” cover of the New York Daily News, which became a lasting vestige of the 1970s fiscal crisis.

His team also mocked up a fake Daily News cover that read “Trump to City: Let’s Build” and “Backs New Era of Housing” to promote their pitch.

The meeting was scheduled before Tuesday’s State of the Union, in which the president described Mamdani as a “nice guy” and said he was “speaking to him a lot” despite his “bad policy.”

“Even the communist mayor of New York City—I think he’s a nice guy, actually, speaking to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy, just said they want people to shovel snow but if you apply for that job you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card,” Trump said, referring to the SAVE America Act, legislation that would require more documentation for voters to cast their ballot.

Democrats have said the legislation would disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters.

Sign up to get the latest New York City news from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.