A University of Minnesota graduate student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was taken into custody because of a drunken driving infraction, not for being involved in protests, federal officials said Monday.
“This is not related to student protests,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “The individual in question was arrested after a visa revocation by the State Dept. related to a prior criminal history for a DUI.”
News of the student’s detention — and the lack of an official explanation — sparked student protests and expressions of concern from university and political leaders. Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Monday that he spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about it Friday and was still waiting for further details.
Employees across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began receiving notices of dismissal Tuesday, as part of a major overhaul expected to ultimately lay off up to 10,000 people.
The notices come just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other government agencies.
A tree fell on a van in Michigan, killing three children, during a fierce weekend storm that swept the region and contributed to the death of an 84-year-old man in an Amish buggy in Indiana, authorities said Monday.
Trees and power lines were no match for freezing rain and extreme winds over the weekend, and utilities were gradually restoring power in Michigan, although 276,000 outages remained by Monday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. Indiana and Wisconsin had trimmed their outages to roughly 80,000.
Ben Batalden can be reached at bata7649@stthomas.edu
