\n<\/p>\n
After Elmina \u201cEllie\u201d<\/span> Aghayeva, a neuroscience student, was taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from Columbia University housing, a story about ICE\u2019s villainy quickly took hold. During the arrest, the school administration said, federal agents got into the building without a judicial warrant by telling a security guard that they were searching for a missing child.<\/p>\n In publicizing the account, however, the university downplayed Columbia\u2019s own role in Aghayeva\u2019s arrest, an echo of several other incidents over the past year where international students were targeted by federal agents.<\/p>\n Columbia, according to an investigation by The Intercept, repeatedly failed to follow its own policies<\/a> for safeguarding students from President Donald Trump\u2019s deportation machine.<\/p>\n The school has long required that authorities \u2014 whether federal or local \u2014 present a judicial warrant to gain entry to school grounds. Yet a review of university documents and interviews with affected students show how, in Aghayeva\u2019s and other cases, school staff and officials failed to demand the proper documentation.<\/p>\n \u201cColumbia invested more in training Public Safety how to brutalize students, how to arrest them, rather than how to protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Since at least March 5, 2025, when provost Angela Olinto emailed school deans about it, Columbia\u2019s explicit policy has been to bar ICE agents from non-public school property. Yet, in the days following the email, federal immigration agents entered school residential buildings without a warrant at least twice.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter what happened in Minnesota, we know that ICE is coming to our communities. It\u2019s not surprising that they would be coming after Columbia and students,\u201d Eli Northrup, a New York state assembly candidate whose district would include Columbia, said of ICE. \u201cWhat is surprising is that every single person working in a Columbia building didn\u2019t have it ingrained that if law enforcement comes, that\u2019s something that needs to be thoroughly vetted.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the Columbia community, including students who have been detained by ICE, said that despite its clear policies the school has shown that it placed its priorities on matters other than defending people from immigration authorities. They pointed to the involvement of officers from Columbia\u2019s Department of Public Safety in cracking down on campus protests against Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and protest leader who was arrested inside a Columbia residential building last March by immigration agents, said, \u201cColumbia invested more in training Public Safety how to brutalize students, how to arrest them, rather than how to protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to questions, Columbia pointed The Intercept to its public statements<\/a> on Aghayeva\u2019s arrest. The Department of Homeland Security, ICE\u2019s parent agency, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last week, shortly after ICE agents arrived to arrest Aghayeva, who is Azerbaijani, acting Columbia president Claire Shipman wrote an email to the school community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to reiterate that all law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the University,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n
Aghayeva\u2019s Arrest<\/strong><\/h2>\n