The recent arrests of two international students in Minnesota and stripping of legal student status from five others have raised widespread alarm and questions about the legality of such actions across the country.
Part of the federal strategy is not new. Immigration authorities require schools to share information about their international students, and have legally monitored students’ social media accounts for several years, Minnesota immigration attorneys say. But arresting them or ordering them to self-deport based on their political views and presence at protests steps into unclear legal territory, they say.
While some international students have been arrested in other states for political activism, the March 27 arrest of a University of Minnesota student was likely linked to a drunken driving conviction and not political speech, the student’s attorney wrote in a lawsuit filed against government officials.
It’s unknown why an international student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, was arrested on March 28, or why five other international students at the school had their legal student status revoked.
Here’s how the federal monitoring system works: When an international student obtains a visa to study in the United States, their personal information is logged into a federal database. In 2019, applications for international student visas began asking students to include information about their social media accounts.
Immigration authorities “have the whole international student database at their fingertips,” said Craig Peterson, an immigration attorney.
Another database, called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), keeps track of international students. Schools with international students are required to log their names, addresses, email addresses, country of citizenship and the number of classes they’re taking.
Schools are also asked to report passport numbers, the airport students arrive at and their dates of entry into the United States.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can check the database to learn about an international student’s visa status, said Ana Pottratz Acosta, an immigration attorney who teaches at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul.
“The difference here is that their social media monitoring appears to be checks of social media for political speech that has historically been protected by the First Amendment,” she said.
An international student’s status can be terminated on SEVIS for a variety of reasons, including expulsion from school, not being enrolled as a full-time student or unauthorized work, said Minnetonka immigration attorney Steven Thal.
A student’s status on SEVIS is different from their visa, Pottratz Acosta said. A student visa allows an international student to enter the United States, but once they arrive, it is their student status, rather than their visa, that determines whether they can stay lawfully.
Schools don’t report students’ criminal charges or convictions to ICE, Peterson said. However, the federal government reviews criminal data available through the court system, and cross references it with information on international students in SEVIS.
If an international student commits a crime that is considered a removable offense under immigration law, their visa can be revoked and they can be deported, Pottratz Acosta said. If that occurs, school officials do not automatically cancel a student’s status on SEVIS. But it’s possible that an international student can have their visa revoked and SEVIS status terminated at the same time.
When a student’s status is terminated on SEVIS, they are expected to either request reinstatement or immediately leave the country, according to Study in the States, a DHS website.
Minnesota arrests
Doğukan Günaydın, the University of Minnesota student from Turkey arrested by U.S. Customs and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week, did not participate in protests or write any political articles, according to his lawsuit. He is asking a federal judge for release from custody and reinstatement of his student status.
When he was arrested, his lawsuit states, his student status on SEVIS was still active. But seven hours after his arrest, a DHS official terminated that status, thereby removing his ability to stay in the United States.
Günaydın was apparently targeted because of a June 2023 arrest in Minneapolis for driving with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit of .08. He pleaded guilty, according to his lawsuit.
“What the lawsuit is going to have to be about is whether ICE can, on the basis of a DUI, cancel your SEVIS record and thereby destroy your legal status in the United States and render you removable,” Peterson said.
The Mankato student who was arrested last week had a valid student visa at the time, according to a statement from Students United, an advocacy nonprofit representing seven state universities. Their identity has not been publicly released.
‘Atmosphere of fear’
Some recent arrests of international students, including at Columbia University in New York City and Tufts University in Massachusetts, were in response to their online political views and presence at protests, especially those related to the war in Gaza.
In those cases, ICE officials could have used photos from protests, social media posts and bylined opinion articles as evidence that the government claims could lead to deportation, Peterson said.
Judges will have to decide whether those arrests violated the students’ First Amendment rights, immigration attorneys say.
“We do see the current administration really trying to ignore those [constitutional rights] and rush through their enforcement processes before the courts have an opportunity to react,” Peterson said.
He recommends that international students carry their passport on them at all times, or their I-20, a document that certifies their admission to a school and enables them to have a visa.
Some universities are advising international students who are currently in countries listed under a proposed travel ban to return to the United States, according to NAFSA, a nonprofit dedicated to international education. They’re also recommending that students refrain from traveling to those countries.
More than 40 countries, including Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Venezuela, are listed in the proposed travel ban, according to the New York Times.
“A lot of things are happening very rapidly, and it seems as though the goal is to create an atmosphere of fear by a lot of people so that it will silence any action or political speech that is viewed negatively by the Trump administration,” Pottratz Acosta said. “I think that is a bigger problem than simply looking at targeted actions against international students. It has far greater implications.”
If approached by an ICE agent, an international student has the right to remain silent, Thal said. International students can also apply for other visas if they are eligible and their current visa is revoked, he added.
Students United also recommends that international students check their visas frequently and stay updated on changes with their country of origin and the United States.
