Reports of student visa revocations and ICE detentions can’t seem to cease. Just as we were reeling from Palestinian Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi being ambushed at his US Citizenship interview in Vermont, more US-based outlets shone light on a Minnesota family being separated.
News of 33-year-old Aditya Wahyu Harsono being detained at the hands of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Marshall, Minnesota, started rolling out earlier this week. Days before federal immigration authorities arrested the Minnesota father in a hospital basement, his F-1 student visa was revoked, as per Newsweek.
He finished a master’s degree in business at Southwest Minnesota State University in 2023, according to his lawyer.
Aditya Harsono’s green card application was pending
The Indonesian citizen’s wife and court documents submitted by his attorney indicate Aditya Harsono was not informed about his visa revocation. He also had a pending green card application. The 33-year-old man’s wife, Peyton Harsono, who is a US citizen, applied for the same via I-130 and I-485 before his visa was revoked.
According to the official United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website, the I-130 form, i.e. the Petition for Alien Relative, must be filed by a US citizen, lawful permanent resident or US national. The petitioner needs to establish their qualifying relationship with the beneficiary who wants to come to or stay in the US permanently and apply for the Permanent Resident Card (Green Card).
The website notes, “Submitting Form I-130… is the first step to help an eligible relative apply to immigrate to the United States and apply for a Green Card.”
On the other hand, I-485 is to be filled to adjust status to a permanent resident.
Where is the Indonesian citizen now?
Sarah Gad, the Minnesota man’s attorney, said her client had been legally residing in the US until March 23, when his student visa was unexpectedly revoked. He is currently in ICE custody at Kandiyohi County Jail.
“Even with his student visa revoked, he’s still authorized to remain in the U.S. while his immigration petition is processed,” Gad said in an email, as per the Minnesota Star Tribune. She further told Newsweek that Harsono’s arrest was facilitated due to his employers’ involvement in the ambush. He had been working as a hospital supply chain manager at an unspecified hospital that fired him after his ICE arrest.
“What is particularly troubling about the circumstances surrounding Mr Harsono’s arrest is that his employers, who held him in such high regard, were essentially coerced into staging a meeting in the hospital basement solely to facilitate ICE’s apprehension of him,” the family’s attorney said.
On Thursday, an immigration judge granted Harsono bond, briefly giving the family a sense of relief as they hope for his release. The Department of Homeland Security, however, has different plans, as it is now appealing the decision. The Minnesota man and his wife, who works at a chemical dependency residential treatment centre, share an 8-month-old daughter. Newsweek also reported that as a practicing Muslim, Harsono even missed out on celebrating his first Eid with his baby daughter.
Why was Aditya Harsono’s F-1 student visa revoked?
In a letter reviewed by Newsweek, ICE claimed that Harsono’s student visa was revoked because he poses a “threat to US public safety.” Furthermore, the official doc stated that his visa revocation would be “silent” and the state department would not inform him due to “ongoing ICE operational security.”
When asked why his student visa was revoked, a US Department of State spokesperson told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the agency does not weigh in on specific cases due to privacy. “The Trump Administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” the department stated.
Meanwhile, court records show that the official reason stated for Harsono’s ICE arrest was that he overstayed his student visa post a 2022 misdemeanour conviction for property damage.
Student visa revoked over political views?
His wife has since weighed in on the issue, saying that her husband was targetted over political activism. Although his wife believes there to be a possibility that Harsono was detained due to his support for Palestine, his case also traces ties back to protesting the murder of George Floyd.
This ultimately resulted in the misdemeanour conviction due to spray painting graffiti, for which he completed probation. He was also cited for unlawful assembly during the George Floyd protests. The charge in question was subsequently dismissed in the “interest of justice,” according to CBS News.
Harsono’s wife believes that her husband’s political views ultimately landed him in trouble with the federal immigration authorities under Trump’s administration.
Fears warranted after student visa revocation
Her response was reported after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a short memo to the court in relation to Palestinian Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil’s case, saying that his “current or expected beliefs, statements or association” took a stand against America’s foreign policy interests.
In a recently penned op-ed for Fox News, Rubio contended, “The Supreme Court has made clear for decades that visa holders or other aliens cannot use the First Amendment to shield otherwise impermissible actions taken to support designated foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hizballah, or the Houthis, or violate other U.S. laws. They will continue to face consequences – including visa denial, revocation, or deportation.”
“US visas are a privilege, rather than a right, reserved for those who make the United States better, not seek to destroy it from the inside,” he concluded.
Additionally, in March, Rubio said, the US had a right to revoke student visas of those who “participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, [and] we’re not going to give you a visa.”