Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva released from ICE detainment

Federal authorities released Columbia University student Elmina Aghayeva on Thursday afternoon, hours after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered a university residential hall in New York City and took the native of Azerbaijan into custody, the school said.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier said President Donald Trump had called to tell him that Aghayeva would be released following a meeting at the White House, where the mayor had urged the president to set her free.

Aghayeva was arrested by ICE agents at around 6:30 a.m. in Manhattan.

Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, accused ICE of entering university property under false pretenses.

“Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person,’ ” and then detained Aghayeva, Shipman said in an email obtained by CNBC.

All law enforcement agents require a judicial warrant or subpoena to enter housing and other non-public campus areas, Shipman said in the email.

Agents looking to enter private campus spaces should wait until the school’s public safety team has been contacted, she added.

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, in an X post, said that ICE “used a phony missing persons bulletin” about a 5-year-old girl.

“They purposefully deceived campus housing/security to gain entry to the student’s apartment,” Hoylman-Sigal wrote. “The level of civil rights violations that took place is staggering.”

The federal agents identified themselves as police looking for a missing child when entering the building, Shipman alleged in a separate email to the campus community Thursday night. Camera footage showed agents in the hallway sharing pictures of the purported child, she added.

Shipman added that federal agents did not produce a warrant despite repeated requests from a Columbia University public safety officer. They also refused to allow the officer to call his boss, Shipman added.

“This was a frightening and fast-moving situation and utterly unacceptable for our students and staff,” Shipman said in the email.

A Department of Homeland Security official told CNBC that ICE agents arrested Aghayeva, whose student visa was terminated by the Obama administration in 2016, after “the building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment.”

“She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS,” said the official, whose agency oversees ICE.

The incident comes as Trump’s focus on immigration has become a national flashpoint.

Border czar Tom Homan earlier this month said the administration would wind down its immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, an operation that sent thousands of agents to the Minneapolis area. 

Two U.S. citizens were killed by immigration officials this year in Minnesota, sparking backlash against the White House’s efforts.

Columbia has been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs since the president returned to office last year.

The Education Department in June said the Ivy League school did not meet its accreditation standards because it was “in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws.”

A month later, Columbia said it would pay $200 million to the federal government to restore its funding that the Trump administration cut.

Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil was released in June after three months in ICE detention.