ICE arrests, releases student at Columbia amid uproar

What happened

Plainclothes Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Columbia University student Elmina “Ellie” Aghayeva in university-owned housing Thursday morning, sparking hours of protests and political intervention followed by the Azerbaijani national’s release hours later. The ICE agents “gained entry by stating they were police searching for a missing child” and “took our student” without showing “any kind of warrant,” Columbia’s acting president Claire Shipman said in a statement.