University of Minnesota says graduate student was detained by ICE
A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Thursday at an off-campus residence, the school said in a statement.
Friday’s statement — signed by President Rebecca Cunningham, Vice President for Student Affairs Calvin Phillips and Vice President for Equity and Diversity Mercedes Ramírez Fernández — called the situation “deeply concerning.” The international student is enrolled in the Twin Cities campus, the school said.
The university said it did not have further information or more details on the situation. It also said it had no prior knowledge that the detention was happening and did not share any information with federal agents beforehand.
The school did not release the student’s name. The student’s nationality and visa type and status were unavailable.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment Saturday evening.
“It is important to note that our campus departments of public safety, including UMPD, do not enforce federal immigration laws, and our officers do not inquire about an individual’s immigration status,” the UMN statement said. “Their focus remains on public safety, fostering trust and maintaining strong relationships across the University community.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Friday that he had been in touch with DHS to get information, and added that he would share more when he could.
“The University of Minnesota is an international destination for education and research. We have any number of students studying here with visas, and we need answers,” Walz said on X.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the student’s detainment “deeply troubling” in a post on X.
“Educational environments must be places where all students can focus on learning and growing without fear,” Frey said.
This latest arrest comes on the heels of other arrests of international students at American universities.
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University who led student protests at the New York school last spring, was arrested by federal immigration agents earlier this month and was told his student visa was being revoked.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was accused of supporting Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. A lawyer of his rejected the claim, saying there is no evidence Khalil provided support of any kind to a terrorist organization.
Khalil is being held in federal custody in Louisiana after U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman ruled he cannot be deported “to preserve the court’s jurisdiction” as it weighs a filing challenging his arrest and planned deportation.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University who is a Turkish national in the U.S. on what her attorney said was a valid student visa, was similarly arrested by federal immigration agents Tuesday and is also being held in Louisiana. Her arrest was caught on video, with Ozturk’s lawyer saying she was on her way to meet friends for iftar, a meal that breaks the day-time fast observed by Muslims during Ramadan, when she was arrested.
A court order Friday blocked Ozturk’s deportation while U.S. District Judge Denise Casper determines whether she has jurisdiction over the case.
An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama, Alireza Doroudi, and a Russian medical researcher at Harvard University, Kseniia Petrova, were both detained by immigration agents this week as well.
