Columbia Student Detention Underscores Limits Of Campus Protections

The recent detainment of a Columbia University student is showing just how much harder it is getting for colleges to protect their students from President Donald Trump's immigration raids.

Universities have spent the past year strengthening their policies for how to deal with law enforcement officials who come on their campuses looking for their international students, who have increasingly been targeted for deportation.

But the shortcomings of those protections came into stark focus with Ellie Aghayeva’s detainment Thursday, which set off a political firestorm that put New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the phone with Trump.

Even though Aghayeva was released within hours, the circumstances of her detainment sparked outrage among Democratic lawmakers, education advocates and from New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. The school’s leader said that agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered an off-campus residential building without a warrant and “misrepresented themselves” to gain entry under the pretense of searching for a missing child.

That alleged deception — disputed by the department — may complicate already fraught negotiations to fund DHS. It also shows how even colleges with the most comprehensive immigration and law enforcement policies can’t account for situations where government officials don’t follow the rules.

“Colleges and universities really have been doing as best as they can, but they can only do just as much as they can control,” said Zuzana Wootson, deputy director of federal policy at the Presidents Alliance on Higher Education and immigration, a group representing university leaders. “If agents gain entry through misrepresentation or refuse to pause for some sort of verification or judicial warrant, these are all things that universities cannot control.”

Education advocates are again urging federal lawmakers to crack down on immigration enforcement tactics, which have become a sticking point in the negotiations over federal funding for DHS, which has been without an appropriation for about two weeks.

They want lawmakers to enshrine what previously had been just guidance — revoked by the Trump administration last year — protecting K-12 schools, college campuses and other “sensitive spaces” from immigration raids.

It is up to Congress to provide “clear protections and practical enforcement limits for sensitive locations to reduce the fear and disruption” on campus, Wootson said, and federal agents must “follow what is required from them.”

Democratic lawmakers are trying to follow through. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) — formerly an undocumented immigrant — cosponsored legislation last year that seeks to codify these protections for schools and other locations.

“Any time ICE could twist the rules or change the protocol to try to sneak in somebody and arrest people, they are circumventing the traditional scope of the law, so that's important for me,” he said in an interview following news of the Columbia incident. “You have to look at and to see how we can stop that from occurring. Everything should occur within the strict letter of the law. You shouldn't have to impersonate anybody to enforce that law."

Education advocates have spent the past year scrambling to protect the more than 1 million students on visas and 408,000 undocumented students, and urging schools to develop strong protocols for when immigration enforcement comes to campus.

Colleges across the country have established protocols they follow when working with law enforcement, often including a requirement that agents have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public parts of the campus.

Columbia has also spent the past year increasing its campus security after pro-Palestinian protests roiled the institution following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 that led to a spiraling conflict.

But Aghayeva’s detainment also raises questions about what more colleges can do to protect students when the federal government comes to campus but doesn’t follow protocols, education experts say.

“The problem in this case is not that Columbia didn't comply with the law, it's that ICE didn't comply with the law,” said Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education, which represents roughly 1,600 institutions.

“Nobody is trying to break the law. Nobody is saying we're not going to comply with federal agents,” he said. “But if we follow the rules and we cooperate, and federal agents are lying to staff and to students, it makes this issue so much harder.”

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement Aghayeva was no longer a student and her student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for "failing to attend classes."

"Homeland Security Investigators verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks," the spokesperson said. "The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment."

Aghayeva’s detention prompted Columbia to reiterate its policies in a message to the campus community Thursday. The policies assert that in non-emergency situations, students and staff must ask for identification, call the campus public safety department and not allow entry to a building without a member of that department present. Additionally, students and staff must now also contact Columbia’s general counsel before letting law enforcement in.

The school said all federal enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas, which includes anywhere that requires keycard access.

Espaillat said his bill does not specify the type of school to be protected, but was written with K-12 schools in mind after reports of ICE agents near such campuses — an issue that has vexed school district leaders. But he said he believes the recent detention of the Columbia student demonstrates the need to explicitly include universities.

“There is room … to expand that because I think that there are other places that also should be off limits for ICE operations,” he said. “We should be able to craft a broader definition of what these sensitive locations are or should be.”

The talks over the partial DHS shutdown are a potential opportunity to push for that change, he said.

Wootson said while Congress continues to negotiate, colleges must ensure that they have firm policies for how they deal with law enforcement on campus.

“It's important to not panic,” she said, acknowledging that the landscape in which institutions are trying to understand the limits of what they can do to protect students “exists in this atmosphere of fear and anxiety.”

“Stay calm and follow the procedures that have been in place,” she said. “And talk to legislators about what they can do to prevent those incidents from happening.”

Mackenzie Wilkes contributed to this report.