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Columbia University said Department of Homeland Security agents “made misrepresentations” about searching for a missing person to gain access to a residential building and detain a student on Thursday. By the afternoon, the student had been released after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a personal appeal to Donald Trump.
The Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper, first reported that the student who was detained is neuroscience researcher Ellie Aghayeva. Aghayeva is also a content creator with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, and her identity as a student at Columbia is a core part of what she shares online. Before her reported detainment, Aghayeva shared things like a video titled “10 hour study with me at Columbia” and another titled “5:30AM Columbia student morning routine.” She also shared tips for other content creators and has an Amazon Storefront, where creators can earn affiliate revenue.
Early Thursday morning, her Instagram Story had a more chilling post: a photo of someone’s knees with the caption “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help.”
The City reported that Aghayeva is from Azerbaijan and had filed a habeas corpus petition on Thursday requesting her release.
“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. The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin told The Verge in an emailed statement. Aghayeva is reportedly a senior at Columbia. McLaughlin didn’t immediately clarify whether the claim of non-attendance in 2016 was at Columbia or another institution.
On Thursday afternoon, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted on social media that he spoke to Donald Trump about the case, and that Trump told him Aghayeva would be “released imminently.” Shortly after, Aghayeva posted on Instagram Stories again, saying she was on the way home but was in “complete shock over what happened.” Columbia tweeted that it was “relieved and thrilled that our student, Ellie, has been released from detainment.”
In a post on X, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “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.”
Student influencers are fairly common — Aghayeva appears to have been active in a niche known as “studytok.” She recently posted videos labeled as ads for several companies, including Audible and the gum brand Extra. Audible, Amazon, and Mars, which owns Extra, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An email to Aghayeva went unanswered. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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