Federal agents detained a Columbia University student at university housing early on Thursday morning, according to interim Columbia President Claire Shipman.<\/p>\n
In an email to the university community that was obtained by The Intercept, Shipman said that agents with the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia residential housing building and detained the student, who has not been publicly identified, at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200b\u200bOur understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a \u2018missing person,\u2019\u201d Shipman said in her email.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what was relayed to us, the individuals who arrived were presented as NYPD alongside Columbia Public Safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Columbia neuroscience researcher named Ellie Aghayeva posted an Instagram story showing a pair of legs apparently seated in a car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDhs illegally arrested me. Please help,\u201d said the posting, which was first reported<\/a> by the Columbia Spectator.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security later told The Intercept she was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n Students rallying to get the student released collected information about the detention and, in a letter to New York City Councilmember Shaun Abreu, said they had learned from a security guard at the building that federal agents identified themselves as members of the New York Police Department and Columbia security officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what was relayed to us, the individuals who arrived were presented as NYPD alongside Columbia Public Safety,\u201d the students wrote in the letter to Abreu, which was obtained by The Intercept.<\/p>\n \u201cI consider it to be very much confirmed that they pretended to be NYPD officers in search of missing persons,\u201d Abreu told The Intercept. \u201cSo they used false pretenses and they used straight-up lies to get the person they were looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n In post on X, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said<\/a>, \u201cThe fact is that this student\u2019s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when ICE entered this building under false pretenses and engaged in criminal conduct,\u201d Hoylman-Sigal went on. \u201cWe have clear evidence that this was a criminal operation. They are the secret police.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security, New York Police Department, City Hall, and Shipman\u2019s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Columbia security guard declined to comment.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said it had arrested Aghayeva, who is Azerbaijani, for not having a proper student visa.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment,\u201d the Homeland Security spokesperson told The Intercept. \u201cShe has no pending appeals or applications with DHS.\u201d<\/p>\n The students who wrote the letter to the City Council also said they spoke with the detained student\u2019s roommate, who said the agents did not present a warrant.<\/p>\n We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. Join us. <\/p>\n Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n Thank You For Joining! <\/p>\n \n Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. <\/p>\n Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept?\n <\/p>\n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to the roommate, the individuals who entered did not present a warrant to the occupants,\u201d the students said in the letter, whose contents The Intercept was unable to independently confirm. \u201cShe could not confirm whether a warrant existed, but stated that the officers or agents allegedly misrepresented themselves or the circumstances in order to gain entry into the apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n Shipman implored members of the university community to not let unidentified people into campus buildings without a judicial warrant.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200b\u200bIt is important to reiterate that all law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the University, including housing,\u201d Shipman wrote. \u201cAn administrative warrant is not sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security, New York Police Department, City Hall, and Shipman\u2019s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The incident took place less than 25 hours after students rallied on campus<\/a> to demand protections for international students as well as calling for the release of Leqaa Kordia<\/a>, a Palestinian student who has been in federal custody since her arrest by immigration agents nearly a year ago.<\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal agents detained a Columbia University student at university housing early on Thursday morning, according to interim Columbia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4913,18992,4920,9,56,63,65,64,4912,4917,4918,4919,37834,4916,11190,18039],"class_list":{"0":"post-146644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-article-type-article-post","9":"tag-day-thursday","10":"tag-language-english","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-page-type-article","17":"tag-partner-factiva","18":"tag-partner-smart-news","19":"tag-partner-social-flow","20":"tag-short","21":"tag-subject-justice","22":"tag-time-16-00","23":"tag-wc-0-999"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cICE used a phony missing persons bulletin for a 5 year old girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
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