A University of Minnesota graduate student who spent nearly two months in custody, despite an immigration judge dismissing the case against him, was released today following an order from a federal judge.
As he walked out of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling on Thursday afternoon, Doğukan Günaydın looked up to the sky for the first time in eight weeks, then addressed the media.
“I am relieved to be released,” he said. “But I am deeply troubled and harmed by [the] clear violation of my constitutional right for due process. It took 56 days to undo something that should not happen in the first place. Fifty-six days, I did not see the sun or the sky.”
In an order issued late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan found that the government’s continued detention of Günaydın, a Turkish citizen studying for a STEM MBA at the University of Minnesota, violated his due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.
Bryan said that the government had failed to provide a good explanation for its deployment of a rarely used regulation to keep Günaydın detained even after the case against him was dropped.
“Respondents cite to no case, and they develop no argument, involving the propriety of the continued detention of a person who has been ordered released by an immigration judge and whose underlying proceedings have been dismissed on the merits by an immigration judge,” he wrote.
“For weeks, I was detained with my charges dismissed, bond granted, with no pending trial or hearing,” Günaydın said Thursday. “I am disappointed in the integrity of the system and individuals that allow this to happen.”
He thanked the community that had supported him through his ordeal and his lawyers, and offered encouraging words to other international students.
“While there might be some who want to scare us by abusing the power of their office, there are many more who welcome us and fight alongside us to defend our rights,” he said. “My only hope is that no one, including those who did this to me, suffered such injustice. This country deserves much better. Let’s not forget, it’s not liberty and justice for some, but it is for all.”
Hannah Brown, Günaydın’s attorney, said it was an emotional moment for her to see him in clean clothes, out of an orange jumpsuit. Throughout the process, she hadn’t been sure whether he would be released, she said.
“He’s certainly relieved to be home,” she said. But she described challenges ahead. “It’s not going to be any easier on the other side — a lot of devastation that he went through.”
Two other Minnesota students swept up in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s crackdown on international students have also been released recently after spending more than a month in ICE custody. Mohammed Hoque, a Minnesota State University Mankato student from Bangladesh, was released from jail on May 6. And Aditya Harsono, an Indonesian citizen who graduated from Southwest State University in Marshall was released May 15.
ICE arrested Günaydın outside his St. Paul apartment on March 27, citing a conviction from a 2023 drunk-driving incident. ICE then asked Immigration Judge Sarah Mazzie for more time to develop its legal arguments, prolonging Günaydın’s detention for another three weeks. Eventually, ICE settled on a legal framework that Günaydın’s DUI conviction made him a threat to public safety.
On April 14, Mazzie ordered Günaydın released on bond, and on April 30 dismissed the deportation case against him altogether, finding that his DUI conviction was insufficient to make him a public safety risk.
Still, Günaydın remained incarcerated at the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River because ICE invoked a rarely used post-9/11 automatic stay regulation that gives it the authority to override an immigration judge’s decision for a period of at least 90 days, with opportunities to extend it further.
In his order, Bryan described this regulation as a “basic conflict of interest,” and said it presented a “substantial risk of erroneous deprivation of a detainee’s interest in being free from arbitrary confinement.”
“The challenged regulation permits an agency official who is also a participant in the adversarial process to unilaterally override the immigration judge’s decisions,” he wrote. “Such a rule is anomalous in our legal system.”
In an affidavit filed with the court May 15, Günaydın said he had been in the top 0.01% of students his age in Turkey and had received scholarships for his studies since the sixth grade. He received full scholarships to attend an international high school in the Netherlands and St. Olaf College in Northfield.
“I know what it is like to live under an authoritarian regime that limits what citizens can do,” he wrote. “However, the U.S. had freedoms protected by the Constitution that I admire, which allows me to express my opinions.”
He said he had quit a full-time job with a $120,000 salary to attend an MBA program at the Carlson School of Management, hoping to become an industry expert, and was slated to begin a prestigious internship in June. He described his mounting legal fees, student debt, concern about how to recoup the coursework of missing half a semester that he paid for, and opportunity costs of missing out on the internship. He also described his deep bond with his dog, and his worries that she would think he abandoned her.
“Every hour I am detained, everything I built here in the U.S. feels like it is in jeopardy,” he said. “I am at risk of losing my career, the internship, and the possibility of a promising future, all of which I worked so hard for.”
Since being in jail, his physical and mental health has deteriorated, he wrote. The uncomfortable bed has caused his scoliosis to flare up, and he had at times used books as pillows.
Since his detainment, he has experienced panic attacks, he said. “I feel like the walls are closing in on me. It feels like I will only leave this facility in chains or a body bag,” he wrote. “I feel like I am tied to train tracks, and I can hear the train’s horns.”
“All I want is to see the sun again, go back to my dog, continue my studies, and start my internship,” he wrote in conclusion.
As he walked out of the Whipple Federal Building and into freedom on Thursday, Günaydın told reporters he could not stay to answer questions. He needed to go see his dog.
