ICE Agents Detain University of Minnesota Graduate Student Amid Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activists

Washington (Quds News Network)- A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Thursday at an off-campus residence, according to a statement from the university, as more than a dozen students were targeted by the Trump administration in recent weeks as part of a campaign aimed at silencing pro-Palestine voices on campuses.

Friday’s statement — signed by President Rebecca Cunningham, Vice President for Student Affairs Calvin Phillips and Vice President for Equity and Diversity Mercedes Ramírez Fernández — called the situation “deeply concerning.” The international student is enrolled in the Twin Cities campus, the school said, according to NBC News.

The university said it did not have further information or more details on the situation or had prior knowledge that the detention was happening and did not share any information with federal agents beforehand.

The school did not release the student’s name. The student’s nationality, visa type and status were also unavailable.

“It is important to note that our campus departments of public safety, including UMPD, do not enforce federal immigration laws, and our officers do not inquire about an individual’s immigration status,” the UMN statement said.

“Their focus remains on public safety, fostering trust and maintaining strong relationships across the University community.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Friday that he had been in touch with DHS to get information, and added that he would share more when he could.

“The University of Minnesota is an international destination for education and research. We have any number of students studying here with visas, and we need answers,” Walz said on X.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the student’s detainment “deeply troubling” in a post on X. “Educational environments must be places where all students can focus on learning and growing without fear,” Frey said.

Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activism

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the State Department may have revoked more than 300 visas of students.

During a press conference in Guyana, Rubio said the Trump administration was looking every day for “these lunatics”. His comments were in response to a question about Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student who was detained by federal immigration authorities on Tuesday near Boston by masked and plainclothes agents.

“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” Rubio said.

“At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”

Rubio confirmed that the State Department revoked Ozturk’s visa and said Washington would take away any visa that has been previously issued if students participated in actions such as “vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus”. Rubio did not say if Ozturk participated in those activities.

A video emerged showing Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student, being arrested in the street in Massachusetts by ICE officers. The DHS said she was arrested for “glorifying and supporting terrorists” and added that she had shown support for Hamas.

Ozturk is one of several foreign nationals connected to prestigious American universities who were arrested under the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine and anti-genocide activism.

A court order Friday blocked Ozturk’s deportation while U.S. District Judge Denise Casper determines whether she has jurisdiction over the case.

In March, pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE. Khalil had been one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University last spring.

He was taken from his student apartment building in lower Manhattan, and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before being transferred to Louisiana.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump described the arrest of Khalil as “the first arrest of many to come”.
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.

Columbia University also lost $400 million in federal funding after being named on a list of schools accused of failure to address antisemitism. 60 universities could also face funding cuts if federal investigations show evidence that they have permitted antisemitic behavior.

As he campaigned for a second term in the White House, Trump pledged to stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that erupted after Israel launched its deadly war on Gaza and deport any foreign students involved.

Upon taking office, he began to issue executive actions signalling he would carry out his threats.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in a White House fact sheet.

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Earlier, Yale University suspended Iranian scholar Helyeh Doutaghi from its law school after a Jewish news website, which uses AI to generate articles, accused her of being a member of a ‘terrorist group.’ Doutaghi said she is a “loud and proud” supporter of Palestinian rights.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and post-doctoral fellow working at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, was detained by US customs agents, accusing him of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”. The US administration intends to deport him after labeling him as a threat to U.S. foreign policy due to his and his wife’s support for Palestinian rights.

Ozturk is now the third international student known to be transferred to Louisiana after being detained by federal officers. Khalil and Badar Khan Suri were both transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena.

Columbia student Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent U.S. resident, also faces a deportation order but a judge ruled this week that she cannot be detained.

An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama, Alireza Doroudi, and a Russian medical researcher at Harvard University, Kseniia Petrova, were both detained by immigration agents this week as well.