“Can I have a whistle?” a woman with gray hair asked, approaching the box. Levitt eagerly offered her one. “Know the whistle code!” she shouted. “If the whistle sound is broken, it means ICE is nearby!”
Many students were unfamiliar with the whistle code but recognized the potential need for it. A few doors down from where Aghayeva had been detained, a drama student said that her peers were on edge: “My friend brought all of her documents to class, just in case.” Others were less worried about getting detained themselves. “I think it depends on the country you’re from and its politics,” a student from Saudi Arabia said. “Saudi has a good relationship to the U.S.” She wasn’t sure about Azerbaijan. Another international student, from Iran, said, “I know I’ve done everything legally. I’m a permanent resident.” (As is Mahmoud Khalil.)
At a bar not far from Aghayeva’s dorm, a music-education scholar was perturbed, despite having been born in California. As a first-generation son of Mexican immigrants, he said, “I check the boxes for everything they hate.” ICE is on his mind, throughout his daily motions. “Like, can I speak in Spanish in public? I think I have to,” he said, with gentle defiance.
His classmate Rachel, a Connecticut native, nodded. Grasping a glass of white wine, she said, “I listen to these seventies folk artists, like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, and it’s, like, Why can’t we all just get along?”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is more of a hip-hop fan, but he channelled Seeger when he visited President Donald Trump on the day of Aghayeva’s detainment. They discussed housing—Mamdani gave Trump a fake newspaper with the headline “Trump to City: Let’s Build”—and the Mayor raised Aghayeva’s case, urging for her freedom. Trump, seemingly smitten once again with Mamdani, relented: at around 4 P.M., Aghayeva posted on Instagram that she had been released, and that she was shaken but “safe and okay.”
The story had moved so quickly that some locals didn’t know that anything had happened at all. On Aghayeva’s block, a frizzy-haired guy recalled seeing police activity earlier. “But I didn’t know what was going on.” At a nearby bodega, the man behind the register was also unaware of the news. “That’s crazy,” he said, with a nervous smile.
As for Levitt, she eventually left her spot at Columbia’s gates—for now. She was disappointed with how few whistles she’d given out. “But I can’t say I’m super surprised,” she said. “There’s a good amount of fear on our campus.” Perhaps students were too afraid to take a whistle. She would’ve lingered, but she sensed nearby officers getting antsy. “I have more things that I need to do,” she said. “So I don’t want to be arrested tonight.” ♦
