In an Instagram video from August of last year, Columbia University student Ellie Aghayeva posted a supercut of her studying in the library with the caption, “Studying is hard but my parents sacrificed everything across the ocean for me to be here. They deserve a successful daughter.” Aghayeva is from Azerbaijan and is currently studying in New York City.
Today, Aghayeva once again posted on Instagram—except this time it was a photo of what appears to be her sitting in a car with an overlay of text: “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help.”
It's since been confirmed that early this morning, federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security detained Aghayeva at her student housing apartment. To enter the building, according to Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, agents “used a phony missing persons bulletin for a 5-year-old girl” when they “purposefully deceived campus housing/security.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on X that he shared his concerns with President Donald Trump about Aghayeva's detainment. "He has just informed me that she will be released imminently," Mamdani wrote. Just before 4 p.m. ET, Aghayeva posted on Instagram that she had been released and was in an Uber home.
"I am safe and okay," she wrote, adding, "but I am in complete shock over what happened."
As I wrote here, the alleged lie DHS reportedly used to detain the college senior comes just shy of one year after plainclothes officers entered Columbia housing to handcuff Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist and legal permanent resident who had recently graduated from the university.
It’s still not clear why agents targeted Aghayeva, whom they pulled from her home as the sun was barely rising. But it's clear that the administration’s ongoing campaign against non-US citizens, including those who are in the country legally, isn’t showing signs of stopping. Our coverage of the carefully crafted environment of fear they’ve created isn’t going to cease either.
—Katie Herchenroeder
