Minnesota officials were seeking responses if graduate students at the University of Minnesota were detained by the U.S. Immigration Service for unknown reasons.
The university’s leadership said Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained students in off-campus residences on Thursday. Officials said the school had not been given prior notice regarding detention and did not share information with federal authorities. The student’s names and nationalities have not been released.
As the incident remained largely mysterious, state and local leaders called on federal authorities to explain their actions.
“My office and I are doing everything we can to get information about this incident,” said Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar in a post on social media site X.
She said international students are “a key part of the structure of life in schools and in our community.”
The detained student was enrolled in the business school at the university’s Twin City Campus. University officials said the school provides legal assistance and other support services to students.
It is still unknown what prompted him to be detained. ICE officials have not responded to Associated Press emails requesting comment.
Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz said he is in contact with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on X.
“The University of Minnesota is an international destination for education and research,” writes Waltz. “There are a number of students studying here with a visa. We need an answer.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also called the case “deeply troublesome.”
“The educational environment must be a place where all students can focus on learning and growth without fear,” he writes in X.
Authorities have pledged to release more information about the incident once an update is made.
U.S. immigration authorities are targeting people with ties to American universities as President Donald Trump calls for immigration crackdowns. Most detainees have shown support for the Palestinian cause.
The Trump administration cited a rarely vokeable law that grants the Secretary of State to revoke non-citizen visas that could be seen as a threat to foreign policy interests. More than half a dozen people are known to have been detained or deported for the past few weeks.
In Minneapolis, the university’s graduate labor union organized a protest outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Downtown on Saturday, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Dozens of people joined the rally and came to solidarity with international students facing an uncertain future under the new Trump administration.
“International students are a huge asset at the University of Minnesota,” Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota said in a Facebook post. “They travel thousands of miles away from their families and support the system to learn from the brightest one from the system. I can’t imagine how horrifying they are after Ice learns that he has detained one of his classmates.”
