DHS detained — then released — a Columbia University ‘studytok’ influencer
TL;DR
DHS agents allegedly misrepresented themselves to enter a Columbia University building and detain a student, identified as neuroscience researcher and content creator Ellie Aghayeva, early Thursday morning.
Columbia University said Department of Homeland Security agents "made misrepresentations" about searching for a missing person to gain access to a residential building and detain a student on Thursday. By the afternoon, the student had been released after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a personal appeal to Donald Trump.
The Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper, first reported that the student who was detained is neuroscience researcher Ellie Aghayeva. Aghayeva is also a content creator with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, and her identity as a student at Columbia is a core part of what she shares online. …