Hundreds gather to protest detention of Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva (GS ’26) by federal agents

Aghayeva was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security in her Columbia residence hall.

Photo by Gabriela Valentin/The Barnard Bulletin

By Riya Mahanta, Jaya Shankar, and Vanessa Zhou

February 27, 2026

Elmina “Ellie” Aghayeva (GS ’26) was detained at around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday by federal  officers, who entered her dormitory after claiming they needed access to the building to search for a missing person. 

Around 8:00 a.m., Aghayeva posted a photo in which she could be seen sitting in the back of a vehicle on her Instagram story. “Dhs [Department of Homeland Security] illegally arrested me. Please help,” she wrote. 

Shortly after, Columbia student organizations announced a rally at noon at Columbia’s 116th and Broadway gates to “protest the detention of an undergraduate from a Columbia building this morning.” The protest is the second this week, with students and faculty gathering at the Sundial on Wednesday, February 25 to call for increased protection of international student workers.

In an email to the Columbia community, Acting President Shipman wrote that agents from DHS entered a Columbia Residential building and detained a student, making “misrepresentations” to enter the building and “search for a ‘missing person.’” Shipman did not mention Aghayeva by name but noted that the University was “working to gather more information, working to reach [her] family, and providing legal support.”

The email was forwarded to the Barnard community in a message sent by Kelli Murray, Barnard’s Executive Vice President for Strategy and Chief Administrative Officer. Both Shipman and Murray noted DHS and ICE agents are not permitted on campus without a judicial warrant or order, as both Barnard and Columbia’s campuses are private property.

Last year, ICE agents pursued several Columbia affiliates who were involved in pro-Palestinian activism on campus, including Mahmoud Khalil (SIPA ’24), Mohsen Mahdawi (GS ’25), and Yunseo Chung (CC ’26). Like Aghayeva, Mahmoud Khalil (SIPA ’24) was detained by federal agents in a Columbia-owned residential building.

At 11:40 a.m., Community Affairs officers from the New York Police Department (NYPD) arrived, placing barricades in front of the Columbia gates. By 12:20 p.m., a crowd of over a hundred protesters, many of whom carried signs, had gathered in front of Columbia. NYPD officers moved the crowd north up Broadway by barricading the area directly in front of the gates; the group gathered by the 116th Street subway entrance. 

Protesters chanted “Sanctuary campus now” and “What do we want, justice, when do we want it, now, if [we/Ellie/Leqaa/Mahmoud/Keith/Renee/Alex] don’t get it, shut it down.” Leqaa Kordia, Mahmoud Khalil, Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti are among the people who have been detained or killed by ICE. Kordia was arrested in April 2024 after participating in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University; Porter was shot by an ICE agent on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles; and Good and Pretti were killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis this January. 

At 12:28 p.m., Eli Northrup, a public defender running to represent District 69 in the New York State Assembly, addressed the crowd. Northrup called for the passing of the New York for All Act, which would prohibit state and local officers from collaborating or sharing information with ICE and disallow ICE from entering private properties without a judicial warrant. 

“We must protect our neighbors. It’s what makes New York great. It’s what makes us strong,” Northrup stated. “It is easier for ICE to walk into a dorm than it is for me as [a Morningside Heights] resident to walk across campus.”

In response to this, the crowd booed and shouted “Shame.” Many students, faculty, and alumni have called for the campus gates, which have been closed to the public since October 2023, to reopen.

“We will fight. We will win. We will make sure Ellie is free,” Northrup concluded.

Various Columbia students and faculty also addressed the crowd, calling for accountability from the University and increased protections across the Columbia community.

Frankie Tavares, a member of the Student Workers of Columbia’s bargaining committee and a Columbia Ph.D. candidate, expressed frustration with the University’s inability to protect students. “As a union, we are fighting for stronger protections for non-citizen student workers, for a sanctuary campus, and for student workers not to be disenrolled and therefore fired if they have to flee the country,” Tavares stated. “We have to do this because Columbia will not defend its own students and student workers. We have to keep us safe.”

A Columbia University faculty member also addressed the crowd, stating, “We believe that our employer is complicit and we want to protect our students. But they are not listening to us.” 

“We demand that Columbia stops cooperating with ICE,” another speaker continued. “We demand amnesty for all expelled and suspended students, and we demand that we have academic freedom among faculty, students, and staff.”

At 12:58 p.m., the crowd of protesters marched up Broadway to 120th Street, continued east to Amsterdam Avenue, walked down to 114th Street, and returned to the main campus gates on Broadway. Hundreds of people chanted, “We want justice, we want peace, we want ICE off our streets” and “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA.” In front of the campus gates, protesters sang the folk song “Where You Go (I Will Go)” before dispersing around 1:50 p.m.

Later in the afternoon, Columba issued a statement that provided “important additional updates,” which included stationing “additional Columbia Public Safety patrols and staffing” at residential buildings. Residential staff were “provided with reminders regarding the University’s protocol for handling interactions with all law enforcement,” including DHS and ICE, and given a “clarification” that “for non-emergency situations, residential staff will not allow any law enforcement entry into our buildings without Columbia Public Safety present and guidance from the Office of the General Counsel.”

At 3:18 p.m., New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on X that he shared his concerns about Aghayeva’s detainment with President Trump. President Trump reportedly told Mamdani that Aghayeva “will be released imminently.”

At around 3:45pm, Aghayeva posted an update on her Instagram story stating that she had been released from DHS custody.

“I just got out a while ago. I am safe and okay,” she wrote. “I am in complete shock over what happened … I need a little bit of time to process everything.”

In the evening, Barnard’s Interim Dean Youngblood Giles and Dean Tedder emailed the Barnard community with a list of  “Supportive Resources for Students,” including a Know Your Rights Training hosted by The Center for Engagement & Inclusion in partnership with the Columbia Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic on Friday.

“As ever, we are here to support each and every one of you,” the deans concluded.