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An immigration judge rejected a bid Thursday to throw out deportation proceedings against a Marshall man from Indonesia who studied business and environmental science at Southwest Minnesota State University.
Immigration Judge Sarah Mazzie said she found Aditya Harsono, 33, “removable under clear and convincing evidence.” She will hear arguments on May 1 about why he should be allowed to stay in the country.
Court documents show that Harsono was arrested by ICE at his workplace on March 25, after the government revoked his student visa without his knowledge two days earlier. Harsono was working as a supply chain manager for a health care company as part of Optional Practical Training, which allows international students to work briefly in their field after graduating.
Harsono received a master’s in business administration from Southwest Minnesota State University in 2023.
Harsono is one of numerous Minnesota international students whose visas have been revoked or student status has been terminated in the last month. At least two others — one studying at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and another, Doğukan Günaydın, studying at the University of Minnesota — have also been arrested by ICE.
A memo from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, included in court documents, indicates that Harsono’s visa was revoked after a criminal records check showed that he had a conviction for property damage. It said he “now poses a threat to U.S. public safety.”
The government memo specifically cited Harsono’s guilty plea and misdemeanor conviction for vandalizing four Schwan’s semi trailers in 2022, but it also provided evidence of another citation. Harsono was arrested on probable cause of riot in Brooklyn Center in April 2021, protesting the police killing of Daunte Wright. The charge was downgraded to presence at an unlawful assembly, and the Brooklyn Center City Attorney later dismissed it altogether citing “the interest of justice.”
During his hearing Thursday, Harsono’s attorney, Sarah Gad, argued that Mazzie should terminate the case, citing “significant humanitarian reasons.” She explained that Harsono’s wife Peyton and eight-month-old daughter Adalet, both U.S. citizens, were facing “extreme hardship” with the breadwinner of their family imprisoned.
Mazzie said she understood Harsono’s personal circumstances, but that the law weighed against terminating the case when the respondent is detained.
Harsono has been detained since March 25 at the Kandiyohi County jail in Willmar. On April 10, Mazzie ordered that he could be released on bond, but the Department of Homeland Security appealed the decision and also used its authority to issue a stay on it. The appeal is pending, a DHS lawyer told Mazzie Thursday.
So Harsono remains detained. And because he is detained, Mazzie has limited authority to exercise her discretion to terminate the proceedings, she explained. She also said that she could not terminate the case for humanitarian reasons unless DHS consented to it. And DHS made clear that the agency did not consent.
Gad, Harsono’s lawyer, did not respond to interview requests Thursday. In an interview Monday, she described her client as “a very honest and thoughtful person.”
“He’s very gentle, kindhearted. He’s obsessed with his daughter,” she said. “He’s a devoted husband to his wife, Peyton. And his detention is unequivocally illegal.”
She questioned DHS’ motives for detaining Harsono, noting that in its supporting evidence for removal, the agency provided documentation of his dismissed charge from the Daunte Wright protest before evidence of his misdemeanor conviction for property damage.
This order of exhibits “speaks volumes about their order of priorities,” she said. “Usually you put the most severe, central ones first.”
She described an apparent disconnect within the Department of Homeland Security between the prosecution and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where Harsono has two applications pending for permanent resident status: an application to register permanent residence or adjust status, and a petition for an alien relative filed by his wife.
Even without a student visa, Gad said, those pending applications provide him legal status in the United States for a “period of authorized stay.”
“He’s not deportable,” she said.
Deeming Harsono “removable” does not necessarily mean he will be deported.
Graham Ojala-Barbour, a St. Paul-based immigration lawyer, explained that the removal proceedings consist of two parts.
“The first is to establish removability,” he said. “The second is, is there any relief from removal if the person is removable?”
Harsono’s pending applications for permanent resident status do not prevent him from being removable, Ojala-Barbour said. But they could represent “relief from removability, even if he is removable.”
Ana Pottratz Acosta, a law professor specializing in immigration law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, agreed. Even if his student visa has been revoked, the pending application for adjustment in status permits him to stay in the United States, she said.
“He’s not out of status,” she said.
Harsono’s marriage would likely end up being a key factor in the immigration judge’s decision, she said.
“In this particular case, I think the fact that he’s married to a U.S. citizen is going to be his saving grace,” she said. “Or it should be.”
In a letter to the court, Peyton Harsono implored the immigration judge to release her husband. “Our family unit is suffering beyond measure,” she wrote. She told the judge that her infant daughter had become clingy without her father. And without his income, the family risked losing their apartment and health insurance.
“My husband is not a threat to society—he is a devoted father, a hardworking man, and the foundation of our family,” she wrote. “His continued detainment is unjust and serves no benefit other than to tear apart a loving and law-abiding family. We need him home.”
At the May 1 hearing, Harsono will be allowed to argue his case for why he should be allowed to stay. If Mazzie decides he should not stay in the United States, she may order him deported to Indonesia.
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Becky Z. Dernbach is the education reporter for Sahan Journal. Becky graduated from Carleton College in 2008, just in time for the economy to crash. She worked many jobs before going into journalism, including… More by Becky Z. Dernbach
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