A Columbia University student was released from federal custody on Thursday after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he secured assurances from President Donald Trump during an Oval Office meeting in Washington, following what campus leaders called a 'deceptive' ICE arrest at the Ivy League school's Morningside Heights housing.
The case of, a member of Columbia's class of 2026, has quickly become more than a dispute over a single immigration arrest. It has triggered a row between university leaders and the US Department of Homeland Security over how the operation was conducted, drawn in some of New York's most powerful elected officials and exposed the fragile boundary between campus life and federal immigration enforcement.
