A student at Columbia University was detained Thursday morning by federal immigration officers.

Columbia University President Claire Shipman said that “federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’” The school’s campus has been closed to outsiders since 2024.

The president did not name the student, but it has been confirmed to be Ellie Aghayeva, an undergraduate neuroscience student who was expected to graduate this year. She was taken from her dorm room at the school’s New York City campus at 6:30 am.

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fice-seizes-columbia-university-student-ellie-aghayeva-in-their-dorm%2F

  • She does not talk about politics on her social media accounts, save for one video she posted last year displaying a chart of her political ideology.

    Just ONE image of the political conpass with the dot being on Lib-Left… pretty sure that was the only reason

    “Just got off the phone with President Trump. In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elaina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning. He has just informed me that she will be released imminently,” Mamdani said in a social media announcement.

    Shortly after Mamdani’s statement, Aghayeva confirmed that she had been released from ICE detention and was going back to her apartment.

    “I am safe and okay,” she wrote, adding, “I am so sorry but I am in complete shock over what happened.”

    Hmm interesting…

    I wonder what would’ve happened if Cuomo was in that position… would he even fight it? (probably not lol)

  • VeryInterestingTable@jlai.lu
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    It says she was also an influencer. How many bad things did she say about Trump or the GoP. Honnestly I’m convinced ICE is prioritizing political opponents.

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    Does it count as impersonating a law enforcement officer, if you’re a different kind of law enforcement officer? I would think so. But cops are legally allowed to lie. So maybe not?

    • Zak@lemmy.world
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      Very likely. The statute doesn’t seem to have an exception for one kind of cop lying about being a completely different kind of cop.

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    Seeing that this a cute young smart girl, I have the darkest most horrific suspicion of what it is they are going to do to her - considering what they have seen they can get away with now. 😰

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    Whew! I’m sure glad they’re getting rid of those dangerous neuroscientists. They might figure out stupid our government is.

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    Why would ICE look for missing people in a dormitory? That’s NYPD’s job if it’s anyone’s.

    • Zak@lemmy.world
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      They wouldn’t, but the article says

      Columbia University officials and local lawmakers say ICE posed as NYPD cops and used the excuse of a phony missing child to gain access to the building

      If true, that is likely a crime.

      • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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        The whole situation is a crime. But impersonating a police officer should at least get the NYPD to do something. Don’t want ICE besmirching their good name do we?

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        Tbh I would also expect Columbia to lie about this for them. There’s a pretty good chance they knew it was ICE and they decided to go with plausible deniability

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        I would be surprised if it is.

        1. Some federal agents get temporarily deputized as local law enforcement in the areas they operate in (and vice-versa).

        2. It’s not illegal for law enforcement to lie.

        Between 1 and 2, I’d be amazed if anything criminal could be charged here.

        -Ex-cop

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    Assuming dorm counts as residence for 4th amendment purposes like an apartment? If there’s no judicial warrant for it they had no justification for entering.

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    They repeat the line about due process a lot, but not the fact she was there legally, which has to be inferred by the fact she came home after release.

    Does the article come off as jarring, or is it just me?

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    This has to be a Trump->ICE quotas thing; nothing else makes sense.

    90% of racists still believe there are “good ones,” and who’s more of a “good one” than a neuroscientist?

    Just goes to show you that it’s never been about ridding the country of dangerous people.

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    “Worst of the worst”. Clearly /s

    But yeah, while I want to say something about lax security, this is typically just students who are supposed to watch the door. It’s not reasonable to expect to resist being steamrolled by armed masked thugs

    So now they’re weaponizing missing persons. Now no one is going to help the next time someone is in trouble

          • HubertManne@piefed.social
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            yes. due process does not work unless everyone gets it. Its whole purpose is to prevent law enforcement from being able to do whatever they want with whoever they want.

            • Deacon@lemmy.world
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              It isn’t mental gymnastics, and is closer to the opposite. Your comment is nuancephobic. You’re equating someone who is a social media influencer about studying with someone who is literally pushing party propaganda.

              It’s not a broad brush it’s a push broom.

              Yes influencers are bad.

              Yes big tech companies are evil, and an existential threat to our society and humanity

              Yes there are influencers that use their platforms to promote the status quo

              You seem to be putting that all on her, or at least describing no daylight between her and fucking Jeff Bezos himself.

              Read it again through those eyes. You probably don’t actually think that way but that’s what I read and I think that’s what folks are reacting to.

              • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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                I am for due process. I am annoyed at influencers. I have nothing personal against her.

                But dammit, how long do we continue to just give a pass for people driving views and money to the very thing that is part of the problem? Or at least, like I was doing here: simply demonstrating the bizarre relationship people have with the organization that is advocating to eat their face?

                If it was food, or housing, or transportation and there was no other alternative that would be one thing.

                Do people really not understand that by participating on meta platforms, you are literally handing them money and a captive audience?

                • Deacon@lemmy.world
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                  Do people really not understand that by participating on meta platforms, you are literally handing them money and a captive audience?

                  If you thought honestly about the stultifyingly obvious answer to this question, you could acknowledge the actual challenge ahead of us.

                  Not everyone is where you are. People like us who have left the social media and big tech ecosystem are crazy rare right now, and we definitely need way more people to understand and join us in negating the power we’ve given them over ourselves.

                  Your initial comment implied she basically had it coming because she was a mouthpiece for big tech.

                  We literally cannot afford to be this sanctimonious. We do not have the numbers.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      Everyone under 30 needs a side hustle to make ends meet, especially in a school as godawful expensive as Columbia. Neuroscience by day, OnlyFans by night, because otherwise you’re living out of your mom’s car in a Staten Island trailer park.

      Past that…

      Columbia University President Claire Shipman said that “federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’”

      “It 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, classrooms, and areas requiring CUID swipe access,” Shipman’s statement continued.

      Clearly and obviously a lie. But when you’re at a pro-genocide university, I guess this is table stakes.

      • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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        When your side hustle is making money for meta, my level of give a fuck goes way down.

        Of course I think this is awful. No excuse for what ice did, but damn.

        • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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          When your side hustle is making money for meta, my level of give a fuck goes way down.

          Jfc buddy. Get a grip already.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          When your side hustle is making money for meta

          Obviously, anyone who isn’t making their social media accounts exclusively Mastadon should be dragged out into the street and shot.

          • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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            Bullshit. I am commenting directly on this:

            Meta has earned over $390,000 on hundreds of ads pushing anti-immigrant “invasion” rhetoric in just over three months (2024)

            Meta blocks links in all their products for anti ICE apps, articles and discussions

            DHS has spent more than $1 million on ‘self-deportation’ ads in the last 90 days targeted to people interested in ‘Latin music,’ ‘Spanish as a second language’ and ‘Mexican cuisine on Facebook and Instagram

            ICE has spent $500,000 on recruitment ads on Facebook and Instagram

            Her participation drives revenue, ads, and people to this platform. She is part of the problem.

            Again: I think what ice did, and is doing, is awful. And I am not being completely serious, I was joking because I hate “influencers” to some degree. But I hate meta more for what they are doing. It all just makes me shake my head, this is not a secret, she had to have known.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      I will put it this way. If I found out this woman had been a nazi, and a pedophile, and a canabal, and a warewolf, and a vampire, and secretly donald trump in drag, I would STILL insist on being given the same rights to due process and a fair trial as everyone else.

      Here, it’s just grabbing her from her dorm, and she gets no say, no process.

      The process needs to work if we’re to trust it.

      • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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        I was joking, yes everyone should get due process. But damn, why did she have to work for the very thing caused this?

          • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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            so you support meta? All for that huh?

            You know more than one thing can be true, yes its a joke. Yes it is also sad that the very thing she was using was out to get her. Hence the “damn” as in despair. But you dont give a fuck. Too busy with the “gottem!”

    • ooterness@lemmy.world
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      Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.