A federal judge ordered the government to release an international University of Minnesota graduate student from custody after more than seven weeks of immigration detention.
In an order filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan said the continued jailing of Doğukan Günaydin of Turkey violates his due-process rights, and ordered his immediate release from the Sherburne County jail, where he’s been held since federal immigration agents arrested him outside his St. Paul residence March 27.
Bryan ordered Günaydin be released in lieu of $5,000 bond, an amount previously determined by an immigration judge. The decision comes more than a week after Immigration Judge Sarah Mazzie terminated Günaydin’s removal case, a decision quickly appealed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and kept Günaydin behind bars.
In his order, Bryan said DHS and members of President Donald Trump’s administration, who are also named in the lawsuit, offered no argument to show the “propriety of the continued detention” of someone who has both been ordered to be released from custody and saw their removal proceedings dismissed.
“The Court cannot overlook the important distinguishing features of this case,” Bryan wrote.
Günaydin was among several international Minnesotan students whose legal student statuses were revoked without warning, they claim, in late March. He was then taken into immigration custody as the government began removal proceedings against him under the argument his 2023 drunken-driving conviction made him a danger to the public.
His detention drew widespread condemnation from his peers, who have shown up in droves during his immigration proceedings. Two other men in Minnesota who were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were released from custody in the past week after rulings from federal judges.
Günaydin’s attorney, Hannah Brown, referenced one of those cases in court records. She stated Günaydin’s “situation is no different” from Minnesota State University, Mankato, student Mohammed Hoque’s pleas about missing school work and experiencing medical distress as reasons that warranted his release. A judge ordered Hoque to be let go and determined he was unlawfully remaining jailed over his prior social media posts supporting Palestinians.
