Minnesota officials seek answers in case of graduate student detained by
ICE
[March 31, 2025]
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Officials in Minnesota are seeking
answers in the case of a University of Minnesota graduate student who’s
being detained by U.S. immigration authorities for unknown reasons.
University leadership said Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained
the student Thursday at an off-campus residence. Officials said the
school was not given advance notice about the detention and did not
share information with federal authorities. The student’s name and
nationality have not been released.
As the case remained largely a mystery, state and local leaders called
on federal authorities to explain their actions.
“My office and I are doing all we can to get information about this
concerning case,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in a post on the
social media site X. “We’re in contact with the University and
understand they had no prior warning or information that led to this
detainment.”
She said that international students are “a major part of the fabric of
life in the school and our community.”
The detained student is enrolled in business school at the university’s
Twin Cities campus. University officials said the school is providing
the student with legal aid and other support services.
The university’s graduate labor union organized a protest Saturday
outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in downtown
Minneapolis. Organizers said they stood in solidarity with international
students facing uncertain futures as the new Trump administration
pursues an immigration crackdown that has targeted people with ties to
American colleges and universities.
“An increasing number of international students are being detained
without due process across the country,” leaders of the University of
Minnesota Graduate Labor Union-United Electrical Local 1105 said in a
statement. “These constitutional violations are part of a larger plan to
continue stripping our rights away from us, starting with immigrants. It
will not stop there.”
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A person walks on campus at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis
on April 21, 2020. (Glenn Stubbe/Star Tribune via AP, File)
The Trump administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute
authorizing the secretary of state to revoke visas of noncitizens
who could be considered a threat to foreign policy interests. More
than half a dozen people are known to have been taken into custody
or deported in recent weeks. Most of the detainees have shown
support for Palestinian causes during campus protests over the war
in Gaza last year.
“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” the union’s
president, Abaki Beck, said in a statement.
What prompted authorities to detain the University of Minnesota
student is still unknown. ICE officials have not responded to an
Associated Press email requesting comment.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on X that he is in touch with the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
“The University of Minnesota is an international destination for
education and research,” Walz wrote. “We have any number of students
studying here with visas, and we need answers.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also called the case “deeply
troubling.”
“Educational environments must be places where all students can
focus on learning and growing without fear,” he wrote on X.
Officials promised to release more information about the case once
they have updates.
“International students are huge assets to the University of
Minnesota,” U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota said in a Facebook
post. “They move thousands of miles away from their families and
support systems to learn from the best and the brightest. I can’t
imagine how terrified they are after learning ICE has detained one
of their classmates.”
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