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Almost a month has passed since Doğukan Günaydın, a graduate student from Turkey studying at the University of Minnesota, was stolen away from his home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). His arrest raises serious concerns not only about due process and the treatment of international students, but also about the broader erosion of civil liberties and democratic norms under an increasingly authoritarian Trump administration.
Günaydın, a Turkish citizen, arrived in the U.S. in 2017 to pursue higher education. He began his academic journey at St. Olaf College in Northfield before transferring to the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. There, he earned a scholarship, maintained a strong academic record and became an active member of his community. In June 2023, he was arrested for a DWI, for which he pleaded guilty and received a six-month sentence, stayed for two years. Günaydın vowed to never put himself in that situation again, a commitment followed upon by the sale of his car.
Despite these circumstances — and without any indication of posing a threat to public safety — Günaydın was detained by ICE agents outside his St. Paul home on March 27. Günaydın was not informed of the legal basis for his detention. Seven hours after the arrest, his student status was revoked. He was first charged with being out of student status, then charged with having a revoked visa. Two weeks after his arrest, the feds added a new immigration charge, including “endangering public safety,” a charge that requires Günaydın’s continued detention, causing the immigration judge to cancel his initial bond hearing. On April 15, ICE still could not specify exactly what charges they would bring against Günaydın. As a result, ICE was given an extension to formalize their charges. On April 17, the judge in his case granted Günaydın’s bond, writing that the feds were “substantially unlikely” to prove the case for deportation. The government has appealed the bond ruling, meaning that Günaydın will remain interned at Sherburne County jail as the case proceeds, unsure of when he will be released or whether he will be allowed to remain in Minnesota.
The detention of Günaydın is a brazen, illegal act of state overreach. As the nation’s attention is rightfully focused on bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia home from El Salvador, we must remember Günaydin and every other victim of the Trump administration’s punitive and dehumanizing anti-immigration tactics and human rights abuses. These tactics target Black and brown students, families, children at school, workers and residents from marginalized and international backgrounds in every neighborhood across the nation. These tactics target legal resident noncitizens, creating an environment of terror for our neighbors. And these tactics depend on white Americans not noticing, or caring, enough to intervene.
The criminalization of minor infractions, paired with unlawful or extralegal processes and increasing executive control over immigration decisions, mirrors historical signs seen in the early stages of fascist regimes.
We know that authoritarianism does not arrive overnight. It creeps forward through the erosion of rights, the normalization of state violence and the demonization of the “other.” It thrives on difference and forces communal divisions — be they racial, religious, ethnic or identity based — and consolidates power by pitting communities against one another while chipping away at institutions that safeguard civil liberties.
