It was the clearest sign yet that Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has vocally opposed Mr. Trump on immigration enforcement matters, holds enough sway with the president to bend a highly charged situation through personal relationship and persuasion.
Archiv: Colombia University
Elmina Aghayeva, GS ’26, released from ICE custody, after Mamdani, Trump talks
Aghayeva’s release comes after Mamdani shared his concerns about her arrest with Trump, after which the president informed him “that she will be released imminently,” Mamdani wrote in a Thursday afternoon X post. Mamdani’s advocacy came during an unannounced meeting about housing with Trump at the White House.
Columbia celebrated the news in a Thursday X post, writing that it was “thrilled” about Aghayeva’s release. The University added that it would have “additional details” to share Thursday evening.
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A DHS official wrote in a Thursday statement to Spectator that the DHS terminated Aghayeva’s student visa in 2016 during the administration of President Barack Obama, CC ’83, for “failing to attend classes.”
ICE arrests Columbia student, Shipman says agents lied to enter University-owned residence
(February 26, 2026)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Elmina “Ellie” Aghayeva, GS ’26, in a Columbia Residential building Thursday morning, after acting University President Claire Shipman, CC ’86, SIPA ’94, announced that agents had lied in order to enter a residential building and detain an affiliate.
A person with knowledge of the situation told Spectator that ICE agents impersonated New York Police Department officers in order to enter Aghayeva’s dorm.
Aghayeva’s arrest marks the fourth of a Columbia affiliate amid the federal government’s immigration crackdown, which has continued to target international students at the University.
Epstein files: Nobel winner Axel quits Columbia U. brain institute over friendship with predator
Dr. Richard Axel, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, said he is stepping down as co-director of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute on the heels of his association with notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein drawing public attention.
“My past association with Jeffrey Epstein was a serious error in judgment, which I deeply regret,” Axel said.
Axel won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004 with Linda Buck “for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system,” the prize website notes.