The ACLU of Minnesota, with co-counsel from the James H. Binger Center for New Americans, Gad & Gad Law Offices LLP, and Greene Espel PLLP, filed a federal habeas petition on May 2, seeking the release of Aditya Harsono, a 34-year-old Minnesota resident and new father who was taken into ICE custody by plainclothes agents on March 27. The government has claimed Mr. Harsono was detained because he overstayed his student visa and also purports to have revoked his student visa.
Mr. Harsono came to the U.S. from Indonesia in 2015 on a student visa and earned two degrees from Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU). While at SMSU, he met and married fellow student and U.S. citizen Peyton Harsono. In June 2024, Peyton filed a petition for Mr. Harsono to obtain a green card and remain in the United States with his family. The couple welcomed their first child, Adalet, in August 2024.
The habeas petition alleges that Mr. Harsono’s detention is not only unlawful but retaliatory. “The government claims that Mr. Harsono’s student visa was revoked because of a property damage misdemeanor,” said ACLU-MN Legal Director Teresa Nelson. “However, it is evident the decision to arrest and detain Mr. Harsono were made in retaliation for his constitutionally protected speech — both in support of Palestinian rights and when protesting for racial justice in the aftermath of the deaths of George Floyd and Daunte Wright."
The petition asks the federal court to order Mr. Harsono’s immediate release so he can return home to his wife and daughter while continuing to pursue lawful immigration status in the United States.
“We never imagined that when we started Aditya’s family-based green card application last June, we’d end up here — with him in ICE custody for no reason, fighting for his freedom just so he can continue the process and be with his wife and newborn child,” said his immigration attorney, Sarah Gad of Gad & Gad Law Offices LLP.
“The detention of Mr. Harsono is without doubt unlawful,” said Linus Chan, of the James H. Binger Center for New Americans. “His infant daughter has spent nearly a third of her life without her father. Keeping him detained without cause tears apart a young family and chills the rights of others who dare to speak out.”
On May 6, a federal judge ordered the release of Mohammed Hoque, a Mankato State University student who was arrested under similar circumstances, underscoring the government’s troubling pattern of detaining international students without due process or justification.
“This administration’s sudden targeting of international students is troubling,” said Greene Espel attorney Kshithij Shrinath. “Even with the purported decision to reverse course on the student status terminations that three federal judges in Minnesota held to be unlawful, the rights of people like Mr. Harsono continue to be violated.”