Immigration authorities took an international student at the University of Minnesota into custody in the latest crackdown on foreign students and staff at US colleges.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained the unidentified student at an off-campus residence last Thursday, according to Fox News.
The graduate student was enrolled at the Carlson School of Management at the school’s Twin Cities campus. It was not immediately clear why the student was detained or what country they were from.
The arrest sparked protests in downtown Minneapolis over the weekend.
“The University had no prior knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities before it occurred,” said the University of Minnesota, calling the incident “deeply concerning” in a statement.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz remarked on the detention in an X post on Friday.
“I just spoke with Homeland Security to get more information and I will share when I learn more,” Walz said. “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.”
Under the Trump administration — and the aegis of hard-nosed border czar Tom Homan — several foreign-born students have been targeted by immigration authorities in recent weeks.
The first such arrest was Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a Syrian-born former graduate student at Columbia University of Palestinian ethnicity, who was arrested March 8 in a university-owned apartment after helping organize a series of virulent anti-Israel protests dating back to last spring.
Khalil, who held a student visa and a green card, is now locked up at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana and is fighting attempts by the administration to deport him.
Yunseo Chung, a Columbia junior with permanent US resident status who emigrated from South Korea with her family at age 7, faced threats of deportation after her arrest at an anti-Israel protest at Barnard College earlier this month.
The Department of Homeland Security said she had engaged in “concerning conduct” and that she was being “sought for removal proceedings under immigration law.”
However, Chung filed suit to fight her deportation, and last week got a reprieve from a Manhattan federal judge, who issued a temporary restraining order barring feds from taking her into custody.
Last week, two other college students were detained by federal immigration officials.
Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian doctoral student from the University of Alabama, was arrested by ICE at his off-campus residence in Tuscaloosa on March 25, according to the school.
University officials confirmed that a graduate student had been detained by federal immigration authorities, but it was not immediately known why he was detained.
A day later, immigration agents snatched a Tufts Ph.D. student from Turkey off the street in Boston after the Trump administration “terminated” her student visa over her alleged “activities in support of Hamas,” DHS said.
Rumeysa Ozturk, who previously attended Columbia University, was “ambushed” by ICE agents while leaving her off-campus apartment for dinner with her friends, according to a statement that her attorney Mahsa Khanbabai shared with the Boston Globe.
DHS Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an X post Wednesday that Ozturk’s visa “is a privilege not a right,” adding that “glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.”
However McLaughlin did not provide any specifics about why Ozturk — who recently penned an op-ed criticizing Tufts’ response to anti-Israel protests — was taken into custody, nor did she detail the doctoral student’s alleged terror support.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio boasted that the State Department has so far revoked visas for around 300 international students.
“We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” he said.
The campus arrests have led to nationwide protests accusing the Trump administration of trampling on students’ First Amendment rights.
Carlson School of Management Dean Jamie Prenkert said the University of Minnesota stands by its commitment to its international students during “a time of uncertainty regarding changing federal immigration policies,” in a statement.
“Detentions like these deeply affect our community,” Prenkert’s statement read in part.
“From the very beginning of the University’s business school, our doors have been open to international students. Faculty, staff, and scholars hailing from different countries have strengthened our research and classrooms—shaping us into the Carlson School we are today.”
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