Mamdani Wins Release of Columbia Student Detained by DHS After ‘Productive’ Meeting on Housing With Trump

Mayor Zohran Mamdani says a Columbia University student detained by the Department of Homeland Security will be released soon after he spoke with President Trump on Thursday. Mr. Trump’s commitment to have the student released came just minutes after the mayor and president concluded a “productive” meeting where they discussed housing. Messrs. Trump and Mamdani have one of the unlikeliest working relationships in American politics. Before last year’s mayoral election, Mr. Trump urged New Yorkers to back Governor Andrew Cuomo in his comeback bid, threatening to cut federal funds for the city if Mr. Mamdani were to win. Fears of a combative relationship between the commander-in-chief and the mayor of the nation’s largest city were quickly assuaged, however, after the two had a friendly meeting in the Oval Office after the election. On Thursday, the two met again in-person at the White House, where they discussed how the federal government and the city can work together in order to building more housing across the five boroughs. Mr. Mamdani went so far as to bring props to the meeting, including a printed out version of the famous New York Daily News headline, “Ford To City: Drop Dead.” Mr. Mamdani contrasted that by also giving him a printed out Daily News headline that read, “Trump To City: Let’s Build” with the subheadlines being “Backs New Era of Housing,” “Trump Delivers 12,000+ New Homes,” and “Most Since 1973.”“I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon. I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City,” Mr. Mamdani wrote on X. In that post, he shared a photo of himself standing next to the president in the Oval Office, who was seated at his desk holding up the two printed out Daily News headlines. Ten minutes after that post went out, Mr. Mamdani announced that he had just gotten off the phone with the president. The mayor says Mr. Trump has agreed to release a Columbia University student — Elaina Aghayeva — who was detained by DHS on Thursday. Ms. Aghayeva, a citizen of Azerbaijan, was detained because her student visa had expired in 2016, according to DHS. The school’s president, Claire Shipman, says the agents may have lied in order to gain access to the building Ms. Aghayeva is living. “Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person,’” Ms. Shipman said in a letter. Despite the early morning detention on Thursday, Mr. Mamdani says the president has agreed to let her go. “Just got off the phone with President Trump. In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elaina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning,” the mayor wrote on X. “He has just informed me that she will be released imminently.”In an Instagram post about 15 minutes later, Ms. Aghayeva said she had been released. “I am so grateful for [every one] of you. I just got out a little while ago. I am safe and okay,” she wrote. “I am in complete shock over what happened and my phone is blowing up with calls from reporters. I need a little bit of time to process everything.”Messrs. Trump and Mamdani’s relationship seems to have only gotten better with time, even though Mr. Trump has made clear he sees the mayor as a “communist” while Mr. Mamdani sees the president as a “fascist.”While pushing Congress to pass a voter ID bill during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Mr. Trump reaffirmed that he likes Mr. Mamdani, calling him a “communist” and “a nice guy.”“I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy,” the president said with a smile.

Mamdani Wins Release of Columbia Student Detained by DHS After ‘Productive’ Meeting on Housing With Trump

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