Moral outrage over Columbia student’s detention by ICE

A moral outrage occurred in February. Ellie Aghayeva posted, “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help,” on her Instagram stories around 6:30am Feb. 26 as the abduction of the Columbia neuroscience undergraduate was reported.

Columbia University President Claire Shipman said federal agents told campus officials they were looking for a missing person in order to gain access to the building where Ellie was located. When a student is seized, when fear is used as a tactic, when authority is cloaked in intimidation, we are not debating policy anymore. We are confronting the most basic question: Do rights still mean what they say on paper?

I have spent my career as a public defender in New York standing next to people whose rights were violated by the very systems that claim to protect them. I have watched body camera footage that told one story, and courtroom testimony that told another. I have cross-examined officers whose uniforms commanded deference, even when their conduct did not.

So let me say this plainly: a badge does not sanctify misconduct. A uniform does not make a constitutional violation disappear. Too many people of color have lost their lives because of a badge and misconduct. We are living currently in the United States of fear.

As a public defender, I know how quickly power can harden into impunity. I know how often communities, especially Black and brown communities, are told that what they saw, what they experienced, what they feared, somehow does not count. We are told to wait for internal reviews, be patient, and lower the temperature.The temperature is not the problem. The violation is.

We are living in a moment when political silence is strategic. When too many leaders weigh their words against donor spreadsheets and interest-group scorecards before deciding whether to speak. And right now, as major funding streams flow and alliances are calculated, that silence will be deafening.

It should not matter who is distributing checks. It should not matter which leadership office is counting votes. It should not matter what political calculations are underway. When a student’s rights are violated, when force replaces dialogue, the response should be immediate and unequivocal. Solidarity is not a slogan. It’s survival.

Let me be clear: I am running against an incumbent, Ritchie Torres, who has built a career inside that culture of calculation. I am not. I am running because our communities deserve representatives who do not go quiet when it is inconvenient to speak.

Days after President Trump took office promising an unprecedented crackdown on immigrants, Torres was one of seven House Democrats who joined Republicans in approving the Laken Riley Act, a law that legal experts and immigration activists warned would open the door to a massive expansion of immigration detention and widespread erosion of due process rights.

We’ve seen the spirit of that law play out over the past 13 months as Trump’s racist crusade terrifies communities, rends apart families and leads to students like Ellie being taken by masked men under flimsy pretexts. Recently, Torres tried to walk back his disastrous vote by proposing a law to require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to wear QR codes for bystanders to scan. The idea has been derided by the people on the front lines of the fight against ICE, and for good reason: Scanning a bar code stitched on an officer’s uniform will not stop a rights violation.

If there were officers involved in this incident, their authority must be scrutinized, not presumed. If there were failures by institutions, they must be exposed, not buried. If laws were broken, prosecutions must follow. Rights are not self-executing; they require enforcement. Enforcement requires political will.

In court, I do not get to remain neutral when my client’s rights are trampled. I object. I argue. I demand the Constitution be applied, not selectively, not situationally, but fully. That is the posture I bring to this moment.

Because here is the truth: when powerful people go quiet, vulnerable people pay the price.

This student deserved safety. Their family deserved peace of mind. Every student in New York deserves to know that disagreement will be met with debate, not detention. We cannot allow a culture to take hold where uniforms shield misconduct, where fear is normalized, where silence is rewarded. Not uptown. Not downtown. Not in the Bronx. Not anywhere.

There are moments in public life when you either defend rights loudly or you help erode them quietly. I choose to be loud.

Dalourny Nemorin is a public defender and community board committee chair who is running in the Democratic primary for the Bronx’s 15th Congressional District.