NEW YORK: Federal immigration authorities arrested a Columbia University student early Thursday, triggering protests on campus along with allegations that agents had entered the university-owned residence under false pretenses.Just hours after detaining student Ellie Aghayeva, though, the federal government abruptly reversed course, permitting her to walk free after an apparent intervention by President Donald Trump.In a social media post Thursday afternoon, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he expressed concerns about the arrest during an unrelated meeting with Trump, who then agreed to release her i

“They pretended to be NYPD officers in search of missing persons,” a city council member said of ICE. “They used straight-up lies.”

The student was taken by Department of Homeland Security officials from a university-owned residential building in the morning.