MANKATO — Students at Minnesota State University plan to protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement next week in response to a student’s recent detainment followed by terminated student visas.
Amid ICE’s targeting of international students at MSU and other universities, Mavericks for Change President Cole Koets said the group understands if international students don’t attend.
“Should they come, we hope that they would bring some way of concealing their identities,” he said. “We’ll advocate on their behalf for as much and as long as we can because we have the right to do so and will exercise it while we still do.”
The Mavericks for Change student group is scheduling the event 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday outside Centennial Student Union.
On Friday, Koets and a handful of fellow students took up signs and demonstrated on the corner of Warren Street and Stadium Road. They expect Wednesday to a bigger demonstration with a mix of on- and off-campus organizations on hand.
ICE’s detainment last week was off campus at a student’s residence. The agency has not responded to The Free Press’ repeated requests for information on the reason for the detainment and status of the student.
The termination of five students’ legal residency statuses occurred days later. MSU’s president, Edward Inch, on Wednesday told the student government the university also hasn’t been getting any responses from ICE.
He talked about how challenging the situation is because there’s not a clear action step for MSU or international students to take in response.
“There’s not a clear way even to find out what it is we need to defend against, or what it is we tell everybody how to defend or how to prevent this,” he said at the student government meeting. “What we can do is make sure our elected officials know what’s going on, the impact it’s having on campus, why this is not something that should ever happen on a university campus.”
Koets on Friday described the Mavericks for Change group as being horrified at ICE’s actions. He sees it as a clear message to stifle international students’ free speech rights.
Other students demonstrating Friday said it’s important for non-international students to speak up right now. Many international students aren’t able to demonstrate out of fear, one woman said, so it’s on their more privileged peers to do so.
At one point while the students were demonstrating an older man pulled up along the curb in an SUV. He started filming them with his phone while driving, asking them what their majors were and other questions, seemingly suggesting they weren’t actually students at MSU.
As he drove away he told the students to “get the (expletive) off my campus.”
One international student, who spoke to The Free Press on the condition of anonymity, said he’s not making any unnecessary trips out of his residence now. He has legal residency to study at MSU but fears federal officials will revoke it without warning. The student said he’d been looking out his window worried he might see a black vehicle drive up full of agents ready to take him away.
Securing a student visa, as did the five students whose legal statuses were recently terminated, is a comprehensive process, the student said. Reasons for termination could include not taking enough credits in a semester to be a full-time student or being charged with a higher-level crime — it remains unclear what, if anything, the MSU students did wrong due to ICE’s lack of response.
Students United, an organization representing students at MSU and Minnesota’s six other state universities, responded to the detainment by urging international students to be aware of their surroundings, among other tips.
The group stated the MSU student detained was in good academic standing and had a valid student visa. As of earlier this week the student was being held in Albert Lea, about an hour away from Mankato, according to Students United.
“Students United firmly opposes the unjust detention of international students,” the group stated. “All students, regardless of their immigration status, are afforded certain unalienable rights under the United States Constitution. We are deeply disturbed by the blatant infringement of international students’ rights.”