Sector demands campus safeguards after alleged ICE deception

The actions of ICE agents allegedly using false pretences to enter Columbia University residencies and seize international student Elmina Aghayeva have been met with sector-wide condemnation, as leaders call for greater campus protections.  

“Let me be clear – misrepresenting identity and other facts to gain access to a residential building is a breach of protocol,” Columbia University acting president Claire Shipman said in a statement.  

“All law enforcement agencies – including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE – are obligated to follow established legal and ethical standards. And we expect those standards to be respected.” 

The incident, which occurred on February 26, involved five federal ICE agents enter the New York university’s residential buildings without a warrant, claiming to be searching for a missing child, according to Columbia officials.  

Aghayeva, who is originally from Azerbaijan, was detained but later released after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a personal appeal to President Trump.  

DHS denied allegations that agents misrepresented themselves as NYPD officers, claiming they were let into the apartment by the “building manager and her roommate”. 

“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 agency said. It did not respond to The PIE News’s request for comment.  

The incident has ignited calls for greater protections against ICE on university campuses and comes as Congress is negotiating DHS’s FY2026 funding.   

“Lawmakers should ensure the final package includes clear protections and practical enforcement limits for sensitive locations and campus-adjacent settings,” Presidents’ Alliance deputy director of federal policy Zuzana Cepla Wootson told The PIE. 

She emphasised the fear and instability that such actions cause, which “undermine not only non-citizen but all students’ sense of security on campus and jeopardises their ability to thrive socially and academically”. 

Even when campuses follow protocols and the law, that does not necessarily mean immigration officers will do the same

Zuzana Cepla Wootson, Presidents’ Alliance

Since the incident, stakeholders have shared practical guides for students, faculty and institutions to know their legal obligations and protect their rights as ICE continues to revoke student visas and initiate deportations in previously unprecedented ways.  

“However, preparation alone cannot solve the problem,” said Cepla Wootson: “Even when campuses follow protocols and the law, that does not necessarily mean immigration officers will do the same.”  

Following the incident, New York governor Kathy Hochul proposed a Bill that would ban ICE from entering “sensitive locations like schools and dorms”, accusing the White House of a “gross abuse of power”.  

It comes amid the Trump administration’s broader anti-immigration crackdown, which international students have been a primary target of.  

Last year, nearly 2,000 student visas were revoked across US colleges as ICE agents arrested and detained students for their pro-Palestinian expression, including Columbia students Mahmoud Khaliland and Mohsen Mahdawi.  

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