The NYPD on Friday released body-camera footage of officers encountering Department of Homeland Security agents after last week’s federal immigration arrest of Columbia University student Ellie Aghayeva.
Columbia Acting President Claire Shipman has said that DHS agents “misrepresented” that “they were police searching for a missing child” to enter a Columbia apartment building and temporarily detain one of its students. DHS has said agents identified themselves but has not commented on the missing person allegation.
The release of the video came days after Democratic lawmakers sent a letter calling on NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to publish the footage related to the arrest of Aghayeva, a Columbia senior from Azerbaijan. The elected officials also asked Columbia to release its own security footage, which school officials have declined to do.
“The public interest demands transparency and accountability related both to the actions of the Federal officers involved and the assertions made by DHS officials,” read the Monday letter, signed by State Assemblyman Micah Lasher, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and local City Councilman Shaun Abreu, among others.
The nearly 11-minute video shows an anonymous 911 caller on Feb. 26, the day of Aghayeva’s arrest, reporting two “suspicious” men dressed in dark clothes trying to gain entry. There is no sign of Aghayeva in her apartment.
Body-cam footage from the viewpoints of two police officers shows them responding to the call just after 6:30 a.m. at W. 121st St. At the scene, police find a Columbia school safety officer and a plainclothes DHS agent, who appears to be wearing a Homeland Security badge around his neck, in the hallway. Two more DHS agents and a man identified as the building superintendent are found inside the apartment, with both of the former sporting badges.
It was not clear from the footage if the three DHS agents, or two more agents that Shipman has said were present, had been wearing the badges when they first entered the building. The university president has also said the Columbia officer arrived after “it became clear they had misrepresented themselves,” and then asked them “multiple times” for a warrant.
Hoylman-Sigal on Friday thanked the NYPD for making the footage available.
“Based on the video, it’s more imperative than ever that @Columbia release their security camera footage so we can fully understand how ICE gained access to this off-campus housing and to the extent civil rights violations occurred,” he wrote on X.
Spokespeople for Columbia referred the Daily News to Shipman’s prior statements. DHS did not immediately return a request for comment.
“To ensure full transparency and show exactly how our officers appropriately responded to this incident, the NYPD released both the body worn camera footage and 911 call,” a NYPD spokesperson said in a statement.
Aghayeva’s arrest appeared to be the first time in nearly a year that federal immigration authorities were active on Columbia’s campus, which has been rocked by the detention of several classmates, including most famously, former graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
During the video, the police officers enter the building through an intercom system. There are no Columbia personnel downstairs.
Upstairs, the first DHS agent in the hallway, when asked what he is there for, responds a Homeland Security investigation and provides identification.
“You’re the ‘suspicious person?’” a police officer asks, to which the DHS agent smirks.
“We called the super on the intercom,” the DHS agent said.
Police enter the apartment and find two more DHS agents and a third man, who the first agent identified as the building superintendent: “I think that’s the ‘suspicious person’ right there. ‘All black,’” an officer quips at the sight of one of the agents in dark clothes.
One agent provides identification, while the other does not. The officers respond that “two out of three” is “fine.”
The police officers apologize for disturbing the DHS agents and tell them: “Stay safe.”
Aghayeva was released later that afternoon after Mayor Mamdani at an unrelated meeting with President Trump asked that she be let go, as well as that the cases of four other people connected to Columbia — three current and former students and a protester — be dropped.
“When I sat with the president in the Oval Office, I brought up to him the fact that ICE had detained a Columbia student just that morning,” Mamdani said at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday. “I believe that all of their cases should be dropped.”
“After the meeting concluded, shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from the president informing me that he was taking the decision to release her imminently.”
With Rocco Parascandola
