Rep. Omar’s Statement on Visiting Detained University of Minnesota Student
MINNEAPOLIS—Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) released the following statement after visiting Doğukan Günaydın, an MBA candidate at the University of Minnesota, who has been held in an immigration detention at the Sherburne County Jail for nearly a month:
“Yesterday, I drove to the Sherburne County Jail to meet with Doğukan Günaydın, an MBA candidate at the University of Minnesota, who has been in immigration detention for nearly a month.
“When Mr. Günaydın was arrested by immigration agents in March, he had valid student status and had not violated this status. Seven hours after he was detained, his student status was terminated without notice or legal basis. Officials later said that his visa was revoked because of a years-old DWI charge – a charge for which Mr. Günaydın had already completed what was required of him under the law. His attorney and others have emphasized that this charge alone does not provide legal basis for the termination of his status. A federal judge granted Mr. Günaydın bond last week, saying that the government was “substantially unlikely” to win their case to deport him. Officials responded by claiming he is a danger to public safety and filing an appeal in order to keep him in detention.
“I would never condone drinking and driving, and at the same time, I can recognize that people make mistakes, and that our criminal justice system exists for the purpose of addressing harms such as this. Notably, our immigration laws also contain provisions designed to hold immigrants accountable for certain serious crimes, of which a single low-level DWI conviction is not included.
“Across the country, the Trump administration has revoked or terminated thousands of student visas due to minor infractions – some as minor as speeding tickets – and in some case cases, for no identifiable reason at all. It is clear to me that these initial cases are the Trump administration testing the waters to see how far we will allow them to go. Already, we are hearing that the Trump administration is planning to target any and all other visa holders who have anything on their record at all. It is easy for them to attack students first, because they are young and they are usually studying here temporarily. It is easy to muddy the waters by calling students criminals. But if we stay silent while this happens, they will undoubtedly come for law-abiding visa holders and permanent residents. In fact, they are already proceeding on those fronts.
“The way these detentions are taking place is reminiscent not of a nation of laws, but of authoritarian regimes. The Trump administration does not apply the law fairly, using the label of ‘criminals’ as a pretext to achieve its anti-immigration agenda. To suggest Mr. Günaydın must be held in detention because he is a danger to public safety shows that to the Trump administration, the presence of any immigrant at all is a danger to public safety. This is not about law and order – it is about purging our country of people from specific countries or with specific points of view.
“We must all stand in solidarity with Mr. Günaydın and international students across the country facing these undemocratic and unlawful tactics. If due process does not exist for one of us, it does not exist for any of us.”
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