Beyond the Ivy League, International Students at Rural Colleges Are Being Detained by ICE

Students, teachers and staff work “day and night” to protect the rights of international students, often the lifeblood of rural college towns

By Rachael Hanel

May 10, 2025

Source: Barn Raiser

Demonstrators gather for the “Hands off our students” rally outside the Freeborn County courthouse in Albert Lea, Minnesota, on April 10, demanding the Trump administration reinstate the legal status of students detained by ICE. (KTTC)

Friday, March 28, was a near-perfect spring day in Mankato, Minnesota. The sun peeked out and temperatures hovered around 70 degrees. Students on the campus of Minnesota State University, Mankato, wore T-shirts and flip-flops, welcoming the warmth after a brutal Minnesota winter.

At a student housing complex near the university, residents went about their business. Bright moods matched the weather: the weekend neared and there were just a few more weeks to go before summer break.

But it wasn’t just students at the housing complex that day. Right before lunch, plainclothes agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pulled up in unmarked cars and took 20-year-old international student Mohammed Hoque into custody. The agents had followed Hoque, a management information systems major from Bangladesh, as he was returning from a coding class. He was arrested in front of his parents, who were in town visiting, the day before the family was to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan.

On April 9, responding to a lawsuit filed by Hoque that argued he was unlawfully jailed because of his advocacy on social media for Palestinian rights, an immigration judge ordered him released on a $7,500 bond, determining that Hoque did not pose a flight risk. But an immediate appeal filed by Department of Homeland Security ensured that he remained detained and his F-1 visa revoked.

On May 6, after more than a month in detention, a U.S. district court ordered Hoque’s immediate release, saying there was sufficient and clear evidence of “viewpoint-based targeting” over Hoque’s social media posts and that he was not a danger to the public.

“It feels like our Eid for us. It’s one of our biggest festivals for Muslims,” one of Hoque’s family members told Sahan Journal upon his release, asking not to be named of out fear of government retaliation.

Like many of the students with records revoked by the Trump administration, Hoque has a minor charge on his record—disorderly conduct and fifth-degree assault. The charges are not considered removable offenses according to immigration law. But DHS has said he’s a “threat to U.S. public safety.”

Similar scenes have played out around the country in recent weeks. ICE detentions at universities like Tufts, Columbia and Harvard have made national headlines. But more quietly, international students have also been targeted at smaller, rural universities and colleges, like Minnesota State Mankato (where the present author teaches). These incidents attract less attention and as a result, the scope of detentions and revocations may not be fully realized.

International students face two threats. One is revocation of student visas. Once a visa is terminated, a student technically is in the country illegally. Estimates have put the number of visa revocations at nearly 1,500 by the end of April, but many have since been reversed. At Minnesota State Mankato, 12 visas were initially revoked and 11 since have been reinstated.

Students also can be detained in ICE custody. As of late March, about one dozen students and researchers at universities nationwide have been detained.

About 10 days after Hoque’s arrest, fellow students held a rally on the Minnesota State Mankato campus.

Rallies and protests in this climate can walk a fine line. Jameel Haque, an associate professor of history at Minnesota State Mankato and director of the university’s Kessel Peace Institute, says many universities want to play it safe.

This may be one reason the actual number of student visa revocations is under-reported. In April, Inside Higher Ed interviewed more than a dozen officials at small colleges who could not publicly confirm student visa revocations and asked that their institutions be kept anonymous to protect students’ privacy and avoid possible retaliation by the Trump administration.

Source: Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed. More than 210 colleges and universities have identified 1,700-plus international students and recent graduates who have had their legal status changed by the State Department. Some institutions have shared publicly that students have lost visas but have yet to disclose the number of students affected. These are documented on the map, but the number is unknown.

“The thinking at [many] universities is, if you’re punched in the face, lie down and play dead,” he says. But while university administrators fear of attracting attention and possibly retaliation, students feel differently, he says. At Mankato, “they’ve been protesting for Palestine for 18 months and repeatedly being punched in the face. We’re not getting down.”

A protest rally was also held in early April at the Freeborn County Jail in Albert Lea, about 60 miles from Mankato, where Hoque was detained at the time. The jail is one of three in Minnesota that contracts with ICE to hold detainees.

Haque says it’s one thing to protest in a town like Mankato, which votes reliably blue. But a place like Freeborn County is solidly red. The local news station reported several hecklers passed by the rally, including one who got out of his car to confront protestors.

“If we showed up at a protest here in Mankato, I feel pretty confident. We’ve worked with the police, we’ve notified the police, they haven’t messed with us,” Haque says. “I wasn’t that confident that we could go to the Freeborn County Jail and the police would not pull me over on my way in or my way out of town.”

Many rural colleges and universities have had a long history of welcoming international students and can have large international student population relative to the entire student body. Minnesota State Mankato has 1,800 international students out of a total student body population of 15,200. In 2024, it ranked 15th nationally in international student population among master’s institutions.

International students at Minnesota State University’s Mankato campus. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 1,700 international students brought nearly $46 million into the community. (Courtesy of Minnesota State University, Mankato)

At the local level, many community leaders recognize the benefit international students can bring to economically depressed rural areas. Many of these communities face a shortage of young people, as a younger generation looks for job opportunities in larger metropolitan areas. That, combined with lower birth rates, can put rural businesses in a bind. International students often take the option of extending their visas after graduation, especially if they are working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.

At Minnesota State Mankato, many of the part-time on-campus jobs are filled by international students, who are prohibited from working off-campus.

“When you drive around campus, every single person ticketing cars, every single person directing traffic, the security at events, it’s all international students. The dining hall—international students,” Haque says.

William Coghill-Behrends, dean of global education at Minnesota State Mankato, has heard a variety of plans from international students going forward. Some are planning to stay in Mankato through the summer, worried that if they go home they may not be able to come back. Others are deciding to return home to visit family.

While international students aren’t a monolith, Coghill-Behrends says, “I can say, generally speaking, people are afraid.”

Even though many student visas have been restored, it is unclear if ICE is gearing up for a new round of revocations and detentions. Court documents released at the end of April suggest ICE is developing new justifications for termination of Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records.

Thus far, all that faculty, staff and fellow students can do is support international students as much as possible. Coghill-Behrends credits his staff for working “day and night” to support students. Advising appointments that used to take about 20 minutes are now twice or three times as long, with staff providing emotional support in addition to academic planning.

He hopes that the long tradition of encouraging international students in Mankato will continue to bring students to town.

“They’re definitely feeling the love and support,” he says. “That speaks real volumes, and it’s why this place continues to be such a magnet. Like, if we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have a big population [of international students].”

 

Why Washington Is Worried About Burkina Faso’s Young Revolutionary Leader

By Alan MacLeod

May 9, 2025

Source: MintPress News

Illustration by MintPress News

Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré is remaking his nation, and in the process, making enemies in the West. Since taking power in 2022, the young military leader has expelled French troops, ejected Western corporations, and aligned his country with Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela.

Promoting pan-African unity and national self-reliance while surviving coup attempts, Traoré is positioning himself as a radical anti-imperialist and has drawn fire from Washington and Paris. MintPress News explores the project underway in Ouagadougou and the global forces trying to stop it.

Traoré in the Crosshairs

According to government statements, Traoré narrowly survived a foreign-orchestrated coup attempt last month. Security Minister Mahamadou Sana said that the military junta foiled a “major plot” to storm the presidential palace on April 16. The plotters, he said, were based in Ivory Coast, a Washington-backed neighbor where American military presence has recently expanded.Ever since he took power in a military coup in September 2022, Traoré has been drawing criticism from Western governments, not least the United States.

On April 3, General Michael Langley, commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), spoke before the Senate, accusing the Burkinabe leader of corruption and helping Russia and China establish an imperial foothold in Africa. AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s regional command for Africa, coordinates U.S. military operations, intelligence gathering, and security partnerships across the continent, often framed as counterterrorism operations.

On the day of the coup, the U.S. Embassy changed its travel guidelines for Burkina Faso to “do not travel.” Langley reportedly met with Ivorian Defense Minister Téné Birahima Ouattara numerous times this year, both before and after the coup.

Since coming to power, Traoré has been systematically limiting the influence of Western powers in his country, calling it a matter of national sovereignty. In January 2023, he expelled the French ambassador, calling the country an “imperialist state.”

One month later, he ordered French troops to leave Burkina Faso. This helped spark a wave of other West African nations formerly part of the French empire to do the same. Today, Mali, Chad, Senegal, Niger, and Ivory Coast have expelled French forces from their lands. President Emmanuel Macron responded by accusing Burkina Faso and others of “ingratitude,” adding that these nations “forgot to thank” France.

Traoré’s administration has also blocked or expelled numerous Western government-sponsored media outlets, labeling them as agents of neocolonialism. Radio France International and France 24 were first. Then followed Voice of America, Britain’s BBC, and Germany’s Deutsche Welle in 2024. These moves drew sharp criticism from Western organizations. Human Rights Watch, for example, accused the government of a “crackdown” on dissent.

Although formally independent for over half a century, France maintains significant control over its former African colonies. Fourteen nations use the CFA franc, an international currency set at a fixed rate against the French franc and now the euro. This means that importing from and exporting to France (and now Europe) is very cheap, but doing the same with the rest of the world is prohibitively expensive. France maintains a veto over the monetary policies of the CFA franc, leaving African states economically dependent on Paris.

Traoré has described the CFA franc as a mechanism that “maintains Africa in slavery,” and has announced his intention to create a new currency. Along with Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has broken away from the Western-backed ECOWAS regional bloc and established the Alliance of Sahel States, a pan-African union of states that sees itself as the first step towards a unified, anti-imperialist Africa.

The Legacy of Sankara

This was the dream of the revolutionary Burkinabe leader, Thomas Sankara. Like Traoré, Sankara was a military officer who seized power in his early thirties. And in just four years, he introduced sweeping reforms to boost the nation’s productivity and minimize reliance on foreign aid. Stating that “he who feeds you controls you,” he promoted domestic, small-scale agriculture to produce nutritious, locally grown food.

While many of the region’s leaders embezzled public funds, Sankara’s socialist revolution built social housing and health centers and tackled mass illiteracy. A feminist, he outlawed forced marriages and female genital mutilation, and made a point of appointing large numbers of women to high positions of power.

Sankara was assassinated in 1987. It was only after Traoré came to power that his killer, former President Blaise Compaoré, was convicted in absentia. Compaoré lives in exile in Ivory Coast.

Traoré sees himself as a disciple of Sankara and his movement. Western commentators are split on whether he truly follows in the legendary leader’s footsteps. Some, such as Daniel Eizenga of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (a Pentagon think tank), state that the comparisons end with the leader’s penchant for military fatigues and red berets. Others, such as The Economist magazine, lament that Traoré is the genuine article—a development that spells bad news for big business. But few can deny that he is extremely popular. Ghanaian President John Mahama, for instance, noted that Traoré attended his inauguration in January and received far more applause than anyone, including Mahama himself.

Many of Traoré’s initiatives are directly inspired by the Sankara era. The new military government has emphasized achieving food sovereignty. A new, $1 billion initiative has been launched to mechanize agriculture and increase the production of staple crops such as rice, maize, and potatoes.

Traoré has also made moves to nationalize the nation’s mining industry. Burkina Faso’s economy revolves around gold, with the precious metal accounting for over 80% of its exports. The country is the world’s 13th-largest producer of gold, making around 100 tons per year, equivalent to about $6 billion. Yet, because foreign corporations own and control production, the nation and its people see precious little benefit from the industry. Indeed, the annual Burkinabe GDP is only around $18 billion.

“Why does resource-rich Africa remain the poorest region of the world? The heads of African states should not behave like puppets in the hands of the imperialists,” Traoré said. In August, his government nationalized two key Western-owned gold mines, paying only $80 million, a fraction of the $300 million they reportedly sold for in 2023. In November, the administration announced the construction of the country’s first gold refinery.

A Nation At War

Burkina Faso remains a nation in crisis. The country—and indeed much of the Sahel region—is locked in a bitter battle with well-armed Islamist groups who rose to power and prominence after NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya. Since then, Libya has become an exporter of extremism, destabilizing the region. It is estimated that up to 40% of the country is in the control of Al-Qaeda or Islamic State-affiliated forces. Over 1,000 people in Burkina Faso lost their lives to these groups in 2024.

It is for this reason that Traoré has justified postponing the elections he promised when he came to power – a decision that many have criticized. “[Elections are] not the priority; clearly, security is the priority,” he said. It remains to be seen whether the Burkinabe people will accept this decision.

Perhaps the most questionable action of the war occurred in 2023 in the village of Karma, where around 150 people were massacred. Although the massacre was strongly condemned by the government, rights groups such as Amnesty International have labeled them responsible for the killings.

While he has expelled French forces working on counterinsurgency, Traoré has welcomed in Russian military advisors. He is also flying to Moscow to attend Russia’s Victory Day Parade on May 9. Such actions have caused serious consternation in Washington and Brussels. However, with the U.S. military concentrating on China and Russia, and the French in a weaker position in West Africa than ever, it is unclear whether military intervention is an option. A coup attempt or assassination appears more likely.

Time will tell whether Traoré will leave as indelible a mark on Burkina Faso as his hero, Thomas Sankara. Many African leaders have come to power promising radical change, but have failed to deliver. Yet his message of pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism, and self-reliance is certainly striking a chord. Traoré is certainly talking the talk. Now he must walk the walk.

BUILDING THE NEW WORLD FROM THE SHELL OF THE OLD

Community-run Food Co-ops Can Reduce Food Insecurity and Boost Healthy Diets

ByKatherine Kent,Cristy Brooks,Freya MacMillan
May 13, 2025
Source:The Conversation

Image by Robert Ashworth, Creative Commons 2.0


As grocery prices continue to rise, many Australians are struggling to affordhealthy foodand are looking for alternatives to the big supermarket chains.

The recentsupermarkets inquiry, run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, confirmed Australia’s grocery sector is highly concentrated, with limited competition and rising retail margins. In regional and remote areas, consumers often face higher prices and fewer choices.

One optiongrowing in popularityaround the country is the community food co-operative, or “food co-op”.

Food co-ops are local not-for-profit or member-owned groups where people join together to buy food in bulk, usually straight from farmers or wholesalers. These co-ops can take different forms, including shops, neighbourhood-based hubs, or box delivery models. They typically offer a range of foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy products, eggs and pantry staples.

By co-ordinating their orders, members canreduce food costs, limit packaging waste, and avoid supermarket markups. Co-ops can also help lower transport emissions byreducing long supply chains.

We’ve been researching the benefits of food co-ops. We’ve found this model couldreduce food insecurityand increase people’s intake of fruit and vegetables.
How are food co-ops run?

Some co-ops are owned and run by their members. Any surplus or profits are generally reinvested into the co-op or shared through lower prices, improved services, or support for local community initiatives.

Other co-ops are managed by not-for-profit organisations focused on improving food access for whole communities.

More recently, digital platforms and apps have made it even easier for people to start or join co-ops and connect with local growers.

Regardless of the model, co-ops areguided by valuesof co-operation, fairness and community benefit, rather than profit.
What does the research say?

We recently publisheda studywhich adds to a growing body of evidence showing food co-ops can play an important role in improving diet and reducing food insecurity.

Food insecurityis when someone doesn’t have reliable access to affordable, nutritious food. It can mean skipping meals, eating less fresh produce, relying on cheap processed foods, or experiencing ongoing stress about being able to afford groceries.

We surveyed more than 2,200 members ofBox Divvy, a community-based food co-op operating across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Within this co-op, members join local “hubs”, pool their orders for groceries through an app, and collect their food from a nearby coordinator.

To measure food security, we used aninternationally recognised surveythat asks about things such as running out of food or skipping meals due to cost.

Before joining the co-op, more than 50% of surveyed members were classified as “food insecure”. This is well above the national average (estimated to be around 22%). It suggests many people turning to food co-ops are already under significant financial pressure.

After joining, food insecurity dropped by nearly 23%. The rate of severe food insecurity – where people skip meals and regularly experience hunger – more than halved.

These changes were accompanied by improved diets. We asked participants to report how many serves of fruit and vegetables they usually ate in a day. On average, members increased their vegetable intake by 3.3 serves per week and their fruit intake by 2.5 serves.

The benefits were even more pronounced for people experiencing severe food insecurity, who tend tohave poorer dietsoverall. They ate 5.5 more serves of vegetables and 4.4 more serves of fruit per week while using the co-op.

These are meaningful improvements that bring people closer to meetingnational dietary guidelines. This matters because eating more fruit and vegetables is linked to alower risk of chronic diseasessuch as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.

Other research has reflected similar findings. A 2020Sydney-based studyfound co-op members were more likely to meet the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables than non-members.

Another studyofThe Community Grocer, a Melbourne-based social enterprise, found their weekly markets offered produce around 40% cheaper than nearby retailers and improved healthy food access for culturally diverse and low-income customers.

Internationally, aCanadian studyof a community-based food box program – similar in structure to some co-ops – reported higher fruit and vegetable intake among regular users. It found a decline in intake for those who stopped using the service.

In Wales, disadvantaged communities that used co-ops reported better access to fresh produce. Similarly inNew Zealand, co-op participants reported better access to healthy food.

In qualitative research, people who have experienced food insecurity say co-ops offer a morealternative to food reliefby offering choice and control over what’s on the table.
Where to next?

Despite clear benefits, food co-ops remain largely overlooked in Australian policy. This is at a time when national conversations aboutprice gouging and supermarket powerhighlight the need for viable, community-based alternatives.

Meanwhile, food co-ops also face operational challenges. For example, regulatory requirements canvary significantly between local councils and states. This makes it difficult to establish, scale or replicate successful co-ops.

Government support could help co-ops grow where they’re needed most. Some measures might include:seed funding and small grants to establish co-ops in low-income communities subsidised memberships or vouchers for eligible households
investment in digital tools and logistics to support efficient operations, particularly in rural and remote areas simplifying regulatory processes.

As the Feeding Australia strategy develops under the Albanese government, there’s an opportunity to consider how community models such as food co-ops could complement broader national efforts to improve food security and strengthen local food systems.

Katherine Kent is a Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Wollongong.

Democratic Employee Ownership For a Resilient Canadian Economy

By Michael K. MacKenzie, Simon Pek , Alex Hemingway 

May 13, 2025

Source: BC Society for Policy Solutions

Image from Friesens website, employee-owned company in Canada

The US government’s escalating trade war has forced us to quickly rethink and prepare to reorient Canada’s economy.

Discussions have thus far focused on developing new export markets and reducing barriers to interprovincial trade. These are important initiatives, but we can do more and better. 

At this time of crisis, when our economy, sovereignty and wellbeing as Canadians are increasingly threatened, we need more fundamental and innovative action to make our economy independent, strong and resilient to external shocks. 

Our economy must be better for workers, small businesses, families and communities. We need ideas that are both creative and tested—ideas that will find support across the political spectrum. Fortunately, there are policies that meet these criteria: we can make our economy more resilient by making workplaces more democratic, giving workers more ownership and control.

An important way forward is to facilitate the creation of more democratic employee-owned firms in Canada. Indeed, this idea has momentum: federal legislation took effect last year that creates Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) as a promising new vehicle to achieve this aim.

In a democratic employee-owned firm, employees collectively own a majority of the company, have meaningful rights to help shape decisions and profits are shared broadly and equitably. Democratic employee-owned firms include a range of possible company structures including worker cooperatives and EOTs. 

Employee-owned firms exist in Canada, although there are a relatively small number of them. They are most common in Quebec but there are examples in other parts of Canada. Friesens, which operates in Manitoba, is one of Canada’s leading book printers. They are employee-owned and democratic. Shift Delivery is a worker cooperative and bike-powered delivery firm serving Vancouver. PCL Construction and Chandos construction are 100% employee-owned. 

And democratic employee ownership is popular across the political spectrum. A recent US survey found that a majority of Republicans, Democrats and Independents support the  concept of employee ownership and would prefer working for a firm owned by employees. Experimental research in the US confirmed these findings and found they hold even when participants are presented with counterarguments against democratic workplaces.

Canada’s federal and provincial leaders should adopt policies to help make our economy more democratic.

BC Premier David Eby has called the current economic crisis a “human-caused disaster.” It is that. But it is also an opportunity. There is a new willingness among Canadians to think and act collectively and collaboratively to make our economy more resilient. There are many reasons why democratic employee-owned firms will help us do just that.

Democratic employee-owned firms are more grounded in their communities. Employee-owners who have homes, families and friends to consider are unlikely to vote to move their businesses out of their communities in response to tariffs or other economic shocks. Nor are they going to run around the globe looking for the cheapest labour force.

Democratic employee-owned firms also have a track record of weathering economic adversity and facing it with creativity. They are less likely to fail during a recession and more likely to maintain  employment and wages for their workers, which also means they can help maintain macroeconomic stability for the wider economy. 

Research shows that democratic employee-owned firms can be just as, or more, competitive and profitable than conventional businesses. And they are more likely to distribute wealth more equitably, reducing inequality both within firms and across society. Wealth, of course, makes it easier for people to weather economic adversity.

Additionally, when adopting labour-saving AI technologies—another potential threat to Canada’s workers—employee-owners are positioned to share in the firm’s profits and benefit from efficiencies. When jobs and incomes are protected through employee ownership, AI systems have the potential to make work safer, easier and more productive. When workers are not in the driver’s seat, however, there’s more danger that AI systems could put people out of jobs and deepen economic inequality. 

Our governments should act quickly to support and incubate democratic employee-owned firms. How can they do that? There are many actionable policies available that have been tried and tested around the world.

In 2024 the federal government passed legislation to support EOTs. EOTs hold the shares of a firm in trust for the benefit of the firm’s employees. EOTs make it easier for business owners to sell their firms to their employees, with the purchase price paid out of the firm’s profits over several years, meaning there is no out-of-pocket cost to employees. Grantbook, a company that advises philanthropic foundations, became the first Canadian company to convert to an EOT in January 2025.   

The federal government has instituted a partial tax exemption on capital gains realized through the sales of conventional firms to EOTs, which is in place through 2026. This policy creates an incentive for business owners to pursue this option when planning their succession. As a next step, this exemption should be made permanent and extended to worker cooperatives. These tax breaks may be justified by the larger social and economic benefits associated with employee-ownership.   

There are numerous other ways that governments can support and promote the democratization of our economy. For example, they can provide seed grants to establish regional employee ownership centres, a successful approach found in other jurisdictions.

Canada could create a public investment bank with a mandate to cultivate democratic employee-owned firms and provide incentives for conventional banks to lend to these firms. Governments should also ensure that democratic employee-owned firms are eligible for—and prioritized in—existing public investment funds and business support programs. When businesses are being sold or shuttered, workers could be afforded a right of first refusal to purchase them.

Additional tax incentives for democratic employee ownership are also worth considering, such as setting lower corporate income tax rates for these firms and providing personal income tax deductions for workers who put their savings towards creating new worker co-operatives.

Canada is facing an unprecedented threat from an unpredictable and hostile US administration and we need to do something new and different, fast. Our economy will always be affected by global economic trends and external shocks. But we can protect ourselves better than we have done in the past. A new Canadian economy with more—or many—democratic workplaces would be a more equitable, empowered and resilient economy. Now is the time to make it happen. Email

Michael K. MacKenzie

Michael K. MacKenzie is a professor of political studies and the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at Vancouver Island University.