Hundreds protest the ICE detainment of a U of M graduate student
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On Monday afternoon, hundreds of people filled the plaza outside Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus to protest the U’s response to federal funding cuts, the Trump administration’s efforts to halt DEI programs and the detainment of an international graduate student by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
University leaders said the student was at an off-campus residence when ICE arrested them on Thursday. It’s unclear who this student is and why they may be under investigation.
Forty minutes into the rally, Max Vast, who leads the U’s clerical workers union, shared the news that a student was also detained by ICE at Minnesota State University, Mankato. There is no information available about the student.
President Edward Inch notified students and faculty with a campus-wide email about the detainment on Monday afternoon. He said the university was never in contact with ICE and that the agency never requested information from MSU Mankato and has not communicated with them to date.
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“This action hurts what we try to accomplish as a university — supporting all learners to receive the education they desire to make the impact they want in their communities,” Inch said in the email.
As of Monday evening, it remains unknown why the two students were detained. These apprehensions follow the March 8 arrest of Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalil — a legal permanent resident who led demonstrations for Palestinian human rights — and the arrest last week in Massachusetts of Rumeysa Ozturk — who’s studying at Tufts University on a student visa.
MPR News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security about the Minnesota arrests. In a reference to the U of M student, the agency said: “This is not related to student protests. The individual in question was arrested after a visa revocation by the state department related to a prior criminal history for a DUI.”
MPR News has not been able to verify whether the department’s claim about the student’s criminal history is true.
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