Visas revoked, records terminated for more students at U of M, MSU Mankato

Five international students at Minnesota State University, Mankato have had their Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records terminated by the Department of Homeland Security, and the University of Minnesota now says it is aware of three students systemwide who have had their visas terminated.

MSU Mankato President Edward Inch made the announcement in an email to students and staff Wednesday. Inch said university staff ran a status check and found that the Department of Homeland Security had terminated the students' records without notifying the university.

Inch said staff are working with the students and referring them to legal help. “This situation is unlike any we have navigated before,” he said.

MPR News reached out to the university to get clarification on when each student's program was set to end, and university officials responded saying, “because of privacy laws, the University is unable to provide that information.” 

Michael Davis, managing partner of Davis Immigration Lawyers in Minneapolis, said while he can’t comment on the cases of the Mankato students, he said in some cases, ICE is first terminating the SEVIS registration – the system that ICE oversees and uses to track information on students in the country on visas, as a basis to claim that the person is deportable or removable from the United States. Davis said based on that, the visa revocation follows.

Davis also said in other cases, the State Department is first revoking the visas unilaterally on their end, and ICE is using the visa revocation as the basis for terminating their SEVIS and putting them in removal proceedings, but essentially the end result is the same.

Davis said generally, he’s seeing cases where student visas are being revoked even when students are not overstaying their visas and are following the rules. 

“These are all students who are attending school on a full time basis in full compliance with their visas and their SEVIS registration is being terminated, maybe because of country of origin, maybe because there is heightened social media scrutiny, and they've said certain things maybe online, expressing a political opinion that's not popular with the administration.”

Davis added that in his nearly 40 years as an attorney, he’s never seen anything like this before. 

David Wilson, managing attorney of Wilson Law Group, says some recent cases involved students from Muslim-majority countries, but noted that the issue is not limited to specific nationalities. 

“I think it's both a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, it’s beyond the power they have through the Immigration Nationality Act, and it defies the constitutional right to have due process,” Wilson said. 

The announcement comes just days after immigration authorities detained another international student at Minnesota State University, Mankato and a University of Minnesota student in the Twin Cities.

This is a developing story. More reporting to come.

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