At roughly 6:30 a.m. Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Columbia senior Elmina Aghayeva in her university-owned apartment. The agents entered the building under false pretenses — allegedly impersonating police officers and claiming to be searching for a missing child. Moments later, they took Aghayeva into custody while ignoring a Columbia public safety officer’s request for time to call their supervisor.
If ICE came to campus, the truth is that Brown would have no immediate legal recourse. Under President Trump, federal agencies have become a law unto themselves, and neither courts nor Congress has been willing to rein in the government. Though many on campus believe that there is more the University could be doing right now to protect its students, what happened at Columbia could have happened here at Brown. The sad reality is that when it comes to ICE, the University is largely powerless.
It has been a longstanding ICE practice for federal agents to lie about their identities to gain access to nonpublic spaces. This was the case in Aghayeva’s arrest yesterday. Authorities created a narrative that appealed to basic human empathy — they were trying to find a “lost” child. If ICE is let in voluntarily, it can no longer be considered an illegal search. No amount of training will prepare students and faculty to face the variety of tactics ICE has at its disposal. This is what ICE does best: deceive until submission.
While some might argue that we should increase training for DPS and other staff members to recognize the difference between judicial and administrative warrants, ICE believes that any warrant is sufficient. This matters because judicial warrants have to be signed by a judge, while administrative warrants can simply be approved by ICE itself. Since May 2025, ICE has operated under this sweeping legal theory, which likely violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. While this interpretation will inevitably be challenged in court, in the meantime, even if students or public safety officers request a judicial warrant, ICE agents believe they have the license to ignore them. The Trump administration feels empowered to change the law as it sees fit.
The situation is chilling and should give all of us pause. While thankfully, Aghayeva was later released after intervention from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Columbia Acting President Claire Shipman and others, what happened to her demonstrates the precarity of being an international or undocumented student at Brown, where continuing your studies lies at the whims of politicians.
When students aren’t safe to go to school, something is deeply wrong with America. But when courts are unwilling to stop the administration’s worst abuses of power, and Congress has gone missing in action, what can the University do?
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, and its views are separate from those of The Herald’s newsroom and the 136th Editorial Board, which leads the paper. A majority of the editorial page board voted in favor of this piece. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
