Augsburg Professor Mzenga Wanyama stands beside Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as Wanyama addressed his supporters who were demonstrating outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters Thursday, April 5, 2018, in St. Paul, Minn. Wanyama and his wife Mary returned to Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters Thursday for another check-in to discuss the agency's plan to deport them. Wanyama emerged to a crowd of supporters to tell them that he and his wife have been given 90 days to leave the country. (Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via AP)
Republished April 05, 2018 - 1:22 PM
Original Publication Date April 05, 2018 - 12:16 PM
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is asking immigration officials not to deport a professor at Augsburg College to Kenya.
Dayton sent a letter Wednesday to Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking him to allow Mzenga Wanyama to stay in the United States.
Dayton calls Wanyama "a great asset to Minnesota" and says deporting him would be "a terrible loss to the hundreds of students he influences" and also to his family and friends.
Wanyama moved to the U.S. from Kenya in 1992 on a student visa. He was denied asylum after his visa expired, but accepted a deal that required him to report to ICE on a regular basis.
Wanyama met with ICE Thursday. The agency has said it intends to carry out the court order.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018