This is Doğukan Günaydin
A 28 year old business student at the University of Minnesota who has been arrested for no clear reason
This is Doğukan Günaydin, a 28 year old business student at the University of Minnesota. Doğukan is a Turkish citizen who has been studying in the US.
Before we tell his story — how and why he was arrested — we’re going to need to talk a little bit about student visas in the US and how they work. Don’t worry, it’s pretty interesting.
Most students to the US come on what’s called an F-1 visa, and that includes Doğukan. The F-1 visa is an “entry document.” In other words, a student visa is a legal document that *gets you in to the country*. A lot of times we think of a visa as something that continues to grant someone legal status… in other words, if a student visa was cancelled, I might assume that means that a student is no longer legally in the US. But that’s actually not the case.
Also, student visas are not “immigrant” visas. Part of getting an F-1 visa is declaring, basically, “I am coming to the US to go to school” not with the intention of staying and living in the US after school.
So, the way student visas work is that they get you across the border, but your legal status is essentially defined by what you said you were here to do: if you are a full-time student, congrats, you’re still legally in the US. You can also work part-time on campus (full-time during holidays and breaks). You can change schools (there’s some paperwork involved).
The interesting thing this means is that if the United States said, “Your student visa has been revoked” an international student would still be in the US legally. A student visa is a document that matters A LOT at the border, but once you’re in, you’re in. So when Marco Rubio says (as he recently did) that we’ve revoked 300 student visas, that *doesn’t* mean those students aren’t allowed to stay in the US.
What it does mean that if the student leaves the country, they won’t be able to re-enter until they get a new student visa. In other words: revoking a student visa actually makes a student more likely to STAY in the US rather than leave the country and not be able to get back in.
Okay, so back to Doğukan.
Doğukan stepped out of his home in St. Paul last Thursday, headed to class, when a man in a hoodie came up behind him, grabbed him and handcuffed him. Doğukan had no idea what was happening… his first thought was that he was being kidnapped.
He was, of course, being arrested.
Why?
Well, here’s where it gets a little murky.
Doğukan was held in prison for hours without access to his phone. He couldn’t call his friends or family or contact his lawyer. He was told that he had been arrested because his visa was revoked. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense, right? Because a revoked student visa DOES NOT CHANGE A STUDENT’S LEGAL STATUS in the US.
But he was told something strange. He was told his student visa had been “retroactively” revoked. What exactly this means is a little unclear. As near as I can tell the suggestion is that while the F-1 visa was valid for entry, the US is now saying that the visa was not previously… in existence? It’s been somehow revoked in the past, not the present. So the suggestion seems to be that although Doğukan entered legally on an F-1 visa, that his previous entry is now being declared illegal because the legal visa which he definitely had is now being declared to have been revoked at the time that he used it and thus wasn’t valid.
It’s a little confusing, right?
Okay, now let’s add another piece to the puzzle which is going to complicate what’s going on and make things even weirder.
Doğukan has two legal run-ins that we should know about. In 2021 he got a speeding ticket. And in June of 2023 - almost two years ago - he was arrested for drunk driving. A DUI or DWI is generally a misdemeanor for first time offenders, especially if no one was harmed.
In Doğukan’s case, he pleaded guilty, served his sentence, and complied with all conditions of his release. This is an important piece of the mystery.
Now: can someone on a student visa lose their legal status for a misdemeanor-level drunk driving charge?
Not according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Because an F-1 visa is predicated on continuing as a student, most of the reasons a student’s legal status can be terminated are related in some way to the question, “Is this student still legally studying in the US?”
If a student stops studying full-time, or leaves the country for more than five months, or is expelled, or starts working full time instead of studying, these are all reasons a student legal status might be terminated.
There’s also a category called “Otherwise Failing to Maintain Status.”
Here’s how ICE describes this reason for terminating status:
”Both of the following statements are true:
The student has not maintained status.
None of the other terminations reasons applies.
Note: Clearly explain how the student failed to maintain status in the Remarks field on the Terminate Student page.”
Look, the fact is that the US government probably could have chosen to use his misdemeanor two years ago to terminate his student status, but we elected not to. A case could have been made. Choosing to try to do it almost two years later is… well, it’s just not clear how or if that works. (AND the government has not even clearly said this is what they’re trying to do?!)
One more important point we need to know:
Doğukan’s student visa wasn’t “retroactively revoked” until SEVEN HOURS AFTER HE WAS ARRESTED.
Okay, still with me? Because we’re getting to the crux of the question:
Why was Doğukan arrested?
He was told — BEFORE his ENTRY visa was revoked — that it was because his visa had been “retroactively revoked.” Which makes no sense, right? Because:
* His visa had not yet been revoked
* If it had been revoked, that doesn’t change his legal status
What’s the reason for the arrest in this case? It’s unclear.
The Department of Homeland Security has since said that it’s *not* because of political speech or anything like that, which has been the reason that the US government has been (almost certainly illegally) using to arrest and deport student activists using section 237(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which says people can be deported for “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Doğukan not only doesn’t fall in this supposed category, the government is saying that it didn’t arrest him for that reason.
So why did they arrest him?
Well, right now the government is saying we arrested him because of his drunk driving misdemeanor, which caused him to “retroactively” lose his student visa under the “otherwise failing to maintain status” reasoning for student termination of legal status.
It’s not a reason that has much reasoning behind it.
The argument, presumably, is something like this:
The F-1 (entry) visa was not valid at the time that Doğukan used it, because in the future he would be arrested for drunk driving, and nearly two years later after meeting all of the court’s conditions of release he would be arrested for having his student status terminated seven hours after his arrest, but the visa would be cancelled several years into the past… before his drunk driving arrest which is the reason it’s being cancelled into the past… and thus his entry would be illegal (?).
It’s really very unclear and you have to be a long-time reader of science fiction to follow the time-traveling nature of the argument.
Complicating things further is that despite the public statement from DHS about why Doğukan was arrested, he still has not been charged with a crime or given a notice of when his court hearing will be. So it’s legitimately UNKNOWN why he was arrested, because the state hasn’t charged him with anything. As his attorney wrote, he and she both are “in the dark about the basis for his detention.” And it sounds like the State may not know why either?
Anyway, a judge read all of this and basically said to the US government, “Hey guys, what’s going on here? We need to know why you arrested this guy because it looks like there’s not a legal basis for his arrest.”
This was U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko, who has ordered that the government needs to explain what’s going on and why Doğukan shouldn’t be released. AND, assuming that the government has some sort of case, which seems unlikely at this point, the judge has ordered that his visa status should be restored until there’s some due process that makes it clear he has done something that qualifies for having his student status terminated.
Judge Micko said that the answer should include, “a reasoned memorandum of law and fact explaining [the government’s] legal position [and a] recommendation on whether an evidentary hearing should be conducted.”
Federal officials were supposed to send in their argument by yesterday… I haven’t seen it yet. If they didn’t or don’t send it in, or if the judge thinks their argument doesn’t hold water, then Judge Micko can order Doğukan released.
The thing I find really troubling about this whole situation is that what we have here is an arrest of a legally present international student for reasons that are not just unclear but unstated.
To recap:
* a legal student to the US
* illegally (?) arrested
* without charge
* for a misdemeanor offense from two years ago (maybe?)
* which wouldn’t typically change student status
* and then he’s told his entry visa is “retroactively” cancelled
* but it wasn’t cancelled until seven hours after his arrest
* but a cancelled student visa doesn’t change someone’s legal right to study in the US
Meanwhile, Doğukan is in a jail cell in Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, which also holds federal prisoners. Why? No one seems to know. Not Doğukan, and not his lawyer.
What we do know is that in the United States we say we believe in “innocent until proven guilty” and due process. Here’s hoping our actions match those beliefs.
Sources:
The main story.
Students with revoked F-1 visas still have legal status in the US.
Marco Rubio says more than 300 student visas have been revoked.
Drunk driving is a huge deal, and there’s a reason that *repeated* issues with drunk driving cause it to become a felony rather than a misdemeanor. I’m not interested in shaming people for their past, but given the government’s position here I found this list interesting: politicians with DUI/DWI or related charges.
Legitimate student termination reasons according to ICE.
Student protestors being deported because of “national security.”