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BEYOND THE IVY LEAGUE, INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT RURAL COLLEGES ARE
BEING DETAINED BY ICE  
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Rachael Hanel
May 8, 2025
Barn Raiser
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_ Students, teachers and staff work “day and night” to protect
the rights of international students, often the lifeblood of rural
college towns _

Demonstrators gather for the “Hands off our students” rally
outside the Freeborn County courthouse in Albert Lea, Minnesota, on
April 10, demanding the Trump administration reinstate the legal
status of students detained by ICE. (KTTC),

 

Friday, March 28, was a near-perfect spring day in Mankato, Minnesota.
The sun peeked out and temperatures hovered around 70 degrees.
Students on the campus of Minnesota State University, Mankato, wore
T-shirts and flip-flops, welcoming the warmth after a brutal Minnesota
winter.

At a student housing complex near the university, residents went about
their business. Bright moods matched the weather: the weekend neared
and there were just a few more weeks to go before summer break.

But it wasn’t just students at the housing complex that day. Right
before lunch, plainclothes agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) pulled up in unmarked cars and took 20-year-old
international student Mohammed Hoque into custody. The agents had
followed Hoque, a management information systems major from
Bangladesh, as he was returning from a coding class. He was arrested
in front of his parents, who were in town visiting, the day before the
family was to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the
month-long dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan.

On April 9, responding to a lawsuit filed by Hoque that argued he was
unlawfully jailed because of his advocacy on social media for
Palestinian rights, an immigration judge ordered him released on a
$7,500 bond, determining that Hoque did not pose a flight risk. But an
immediate appeal filed by Department of Homeland Security ensured that
he remained detained and his F-1 visa revoked.

On May 6, after more than a month in detention, a U.S. district court
ordered Hoque’s immediate release, saying there was sufficient and
clear evidence of “viewpoint-based targeting” over Hoque’s
social media posts and that he was not a danger to the public.

“It feels like our Eid for us. It’s one of our biggest festivals
for Muslims,” one of Hoque’s family members told _Sahan
Journal_ upon his release, asking not to be named of out fear of
government retaliation.

Like many of the students with records revoked by the Trump
administration, Hoque has a minor charge on his record—disorderly
conduct and fifth-degree assault. The charges are not considered
removable offenses according to immigration law. But DHS has said
he’s a “threat to U.S. public safety.”

Similar scenes have played out around the country in recent weeks. ICE
detentions at universities like Tufts, Columbia and Harvard have made
national headlines. But more quietly, international students have also
been targeted at smaller, rural universities and colleges, like
Minnesota State Mankato (where the present author teaches). These
incidents attract less attention and as a result, the scope of
detentions and revocations may not be fully realized.

 
Gateway sign to Minnesota State University, Mankato. (Courtesy of
Minnesota State University, Mankato)
International students face two threats. One is revocation of student
visas. Once a visa is terminated, a student technically is in the
country illegally. Estimates have put the number of visa revocations
at nearly 1,500 by the end of April, but many have since been
reversed. At Minnesota State Mankato, 12 visas were initially revoked
and 11 since have been reinstated.

Students also can be detained in ICE custody. As of late March, about
one dozen students and researchers at universities nationwide have
been detained.

About 10 days after Hoque’s arrest, fellow students held a rally on
the Minnesota State Mankato campus.

Rallies and protests in this climate can walk a fine line. Jameel
Haque, an associate professor of history at Minnesota State Mankato
and director of the university’s Kessel Peace Institute, says many
universities want to play it safe.

This may be one reason the actual number of student visa revocations
is under-reported. In April, _Inside Higher Ed_
[[link removed]] interviewed
more than a dozen officials at small colleges who could not publicly
confirm student visa revocations and asked that their institutions be
kept anonymous to protect students’ privacy and avoid possible
retaliation by the Trump administration.

 
Source: Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed. More than 210 colleges
and universities have identified 1,700-plus international students and
recent graduates who have had their legal status changed by the State
Department. Some institutions have shared publicly that students have
lost visas but have yet to disclose the number of students affected.
These are documented on the map, but the number is unknown.
“The thinking at universities is, if you’re punched in the face,
lie down and play dead,” he says. But while university
administrators fear of attracting attention and possibly retaliation,
students feel differently, he says. At Mankato, “they’ve been
protesting for Palestine for 18 months and repeatedly being punched in
the face. We’re not getting down.”

A protest rally was also held in early April at the Freeborn County
Jail in Albert Lea, about 60 miles from Mankato, where Hoque was
detained at the time. The jail is one of three in Minnesota that
contracts with ICE to hold detainees.

Haque says it’s one thing to protest in a town like Mankato, which
votes reliably blue. But a place like Freeborn County is solidly red.
The local news station reported several hecklers passed by the rally,
including one who got out of his car to confront protestors.

“If we showed up at a protest here in Mankato, I feel pretty
confident. We’ve worked with the police, we’ve notified the
police, they haven’t messed with us,” Haque says. “I wasn’t
that confident that we could go to the Freeborn County Jail and the
police would not pull me over on my way in or my way out of town.”

Many rural colleges and universities have had a long history of
welcoming international students and can have large international
student population relative to the entire student body. Minnesota
State Mankato has 1,800 international students out of a total student
body population of 15,200. In 2024, it ranked 15th nationally in
international student population among master’s institutions.

 
International students at Minnesota State University’s Mankato
campus. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 1,700 international
students brought nearly $46 million into the community.  (Photo
courtesy of Minnesota State University, Mankato  //  Barn Raiser)
At the local level, many community leaders recognize the benefit
international students can bring to economically depressed rural
areas. Many of these communities face a shortage of young people, as a
younger generation looks for job opportunities in larger metropolitan
areas. That, combined with lower birth rates, can put rural businesses
in a bind. International students often take the option of extending
their visas after graduation, especially if they are working in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.

At Minnesota State Mankato, many of the part-time on-campus jobs are
filled by international students, who are prohibited from working
off-campus.

“When you drive around campus, every single person ticketing cars,
every single person directing traffic, the security at events, it’s
all international students. The dining hall—international
students,” Haque says.

William Coghill-Behrends, dean of global education at Minnesota State
Mankato, has heard a variety of plans from international students
going forward. Some are planning to stay in Mankato through the
summer, worried that if they go home they may not be able to come
back. Others are deciding to return home to visit family.

While international students aren’t a monolith, Coghill-Behrends
says, “I can say, generally speaking, people are afraid.”

Even though many student visas have been restored, it is unclear if
ICE is gearing up for a new round of revocations and detentions. Court
documents released at the end of April suggest ICE is developing new
justifications for termination of Student Exchange and Visitor
Information System (SEVIS) records.

Thus far, all that faculty, staff and fellow students can do is
support international students as much as possible. Coghill-Behrends
credits his staff for working “day and night” to support students.
Advising appointments that used to take about 20 minutes are now twice
or three times as long, with staff providing emotional support in
addition to academic planning.

He hopes that the long tradition of encouraging international students
in Mankato will continue to bring students to town.

“They’re definitely feeling the love and support,” he says.
“That speaks real volumes, and it’s why this place continues to be
such a magnet. Like, if we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have a big
population [of international students].”

_[RACHAEL HANEL began her career as a newspaper reporter and now
teaches creative nonfiction at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
She’s the author of Not the Camilla We Knew: One Woman’s Path
from Small-Town America to the Symbionese Liberation Army 
[[link removed]](2022)
and We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a
Gravedigger’s Daughter (2013).]_

_This story was originally published by Barn Raiser,
[[link removed]] your independent source for rural and
small town news. _

_Your independent source for rural and small town news._

_Barn Raiser [[link removed]] connects local and
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who live in and care about rural and small town communities. By giving
voice to shared concerns, and by reporting on local organizing
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the commons with local connections._

 

* international students
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* foreign students
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* ICE
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* Immigrants
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* deportations
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* DHS
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* homeland security
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* Palestinian students
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* Palestinian solidarity
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* Student visa
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* Donald Trump
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* Trump 2.0
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* Resistance 2.0
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* Solidarity
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* Minnesota
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