ICE Arrested Them for Cause: DWI, Visa Application Fraud, National Security… Not Random Targeting

The media spin says that a nice, intelligent PhD engineering student was arrested on the way to class because the Trump administration is evil and because of the color of his skin. In reality, federal authorities said that he lied on his visa application. He had a DUI, and he had signed a document stating that he knew his DUI might invalidate his visa. Because his visa had already been revoked, he was in the country illegally at the time of his arrest.

Doğukan Günaydın is a Turkish citizen who was enrolled as a STEM MBA student at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He had previously graduated from St. Olaf College on a full scholarship. He is not a PhD student in mechanical engineering, as some accounts have claimed.

On June 27, 2023, Minneapolis police stopped him for erratic driving. A preliminary breath test registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.20 percent, more than twice the legal limit. A second test at the jail registered 0.17 percent, which still qualifies as drunk driving. He pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor DWI in March 2024.

Notably, dashcam video from the 2023 arrest shows him asking the arresting officer whether the arrest would affect his immigration status, suggesting he understood the potential consequences even before signing his plea agreement. The plea document itself, which both Günaydın and his attorney signed, states in its 15th clause that a guilty plea by a non-citizen may result in deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, or denial of naturalization.

On March 27, 2025, ICE arrested Günaydın outside his St. Paul apartment as he walked to class. DHS cited his 2023 DWI conviction as the basis for revoking his visa. He was held at the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, Minnesota.

The government’s allegation that he lied on his visa application stems from his F-1 student visa application, in which he was required to demonstrate non-immigrant intent, meaning he intended to return to Turkey after his studies. The government alleged that he never had that intent and was using the student visa as a pathway to permanent residence, which would constitute misrepresentation on his application. That charge was ultimately dismissed by the immigration judge.

Immigration Judge Sarah Mazzie ordered Günaydın released on bond on April 14 and, on April 30, terminated the deportation proceedings entirely. DHS then invoked a rarely used post-9/11 automatic stay provision to override the immigration court ruling and keep him detained. A federal judge ordered his release on May 22, 2025, ruling that his continued detention violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process.

The media framed the case as a test of whether the Trump administration could use minor crimes as a pretext to deport high-achieving students. However, DWI is not a minor crime. Similar framing is being used repeatedly in the mainstream media.

Just a few days ago, the Joytu Chowdhury case appeared in several national media stories describing him as “hardworking, dedicated, and deeply committed to his education.” The headlines centered on “inhumane” ICE detention conditions, focusing on Chowdhury’s account of his ordeal. Buried in the articles is the DHS response: “Chowdhury’s criminal history includes convictions for driving under the influence and retail theft.”

Claims about Günaydın being a PhD may stem from a similar case that is sometimes conflated with his, namely that of Rümeysa Öztürk, the Turkish PhD student at Tufts University. The false media framing of her case was that she was deported for writing a pro-Palestine paper, which is, of course, not an offense and is categorically a lie.

The government’s stated rationale was not simply “she wrote an op-ed.” A State Department memo said Öztürk’s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions “may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization,” with the op-ed cited as part of that assessment.

The formal deportation charge invoked immigration status grounds. The notice Tufts received stated her visa was canceled because she was a “non-immigrant status violator” and/or that her presence “would result in potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

StopAntisemitism posted on X that Öztürk “led pro-Hamas, violent antisemitic, and anti-American events as a PhD student at Tufts.” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin amplified those claims. McLaughlin stated that Öztürk “led pro-Hamas, violent antisemitic and anti-American events as a Ph.D. student at Tufts.”

One of the most significant pieces of evidence against Öztürk was her Canary Mission profile. Canary Mission documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel, and Jews on North American college campuses, creating profiles by gathering content from publicly available sources and aggregating it into a searchable format.

The media stressed that she had no criminal record and that the government used a Canary Mission profile as a source of information, framing both as damning. This is misleading. One need not have a criminal record to be arrested and charged with a crime, nor to have a visa invalidated. Evidence can also come from open-source intelligence, including online profiles and aggregator sites. Using publicly available information, including social media posts, published articles, and websites aggregating public activity, is standard law enforcement and intelligence practice.

The FBI, DHS, and every major intelligence agency routinely use OSINT, and there is nothing improper about ICE consulting a website that compiles publicly available information on individuals. No part of what the government did was illegal, unreasonable, or unusual.

The relevant journalistic and legal question is not how the information was gathered but whether it was sufficient to meet the legal standard for visa revocation and deportation. When it comes to arrests and deportations overall, the relevant legal question is not whether you like Trump but rather whether the person violated the terms of their residence, which, in all of these cases, they did.

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