Iranian MSU Student Detained At Detroit Airport, Sent Home

METRO DETROIT, MI — An Iranian graduate student bound for Michigan State University was detained at Detroit Metro Airport on Sunday. According to reports, he was held for some six hours of questioning before he "gave up" and boarded a return flight back to Iran.

MSU said the 27-year-old Alireza Yazdani Esfidajani was due to start classes this month and had been approved for a student visa before flying into the country on his first American visit.

His lawyer Ghazal Nicole Mehrani told the Detroit News federal agents at the Romulus airport detained and questioned him for roughly six hours, eventually pressuring him to sign a document considered a voluntary withdrawal of admission for entry, the report said.

They reportedly never said what grounds they found him inadmissible on, so he withdrew his admission.

Customs and Border Patrol Agent told Patch that he was not deported, but rather, that he drew his admission himself. They released this statement:

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are charged with enforcing not only immigration and customs laws, but also enforce over 400 laws for 40 other agencies and have stopped thousands of violators of U.S. law. Every day across America, CBP processes more than 1 million travelers at our Nation’s Ports of Entry. Of those 1 million seeking admission, approximately 790 are refused entry daily. Every applicant for admission is subject to inspection upon arrival into the United States. The issuance of a visa or participation in the visa waiver program does not guarantee entry to the United States. On January 26, Alireza Yazdani Esfidajani applied for entry into the United States, and was later deemed inadmissible at which time he withdrew his application for admission into the United States. The traveler was not arrested, rather held until a return flight could be arranged to his place of departure. Applicants must demonstrate they are admissible into the U.S. by overcoming all grounds of inadmissibility including health-related grounds, criminality, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds."

MSU spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant said students are working with agencies around the country to help the student.

"Through the Office of International Students and Scholars, the university has worked the past 24 hours with members of our Michigan congressional delegation, other federal support agencies and the student’s lawyer to help through this difficult situation," she told Patch. "We want international students to know we value and welcome them to our campus, and we are committed to global engagement, educating international students and collaborating with partners across the world in higher education efforts. MSU’s international students make tremendous contributions to fueling discoveries and scholarship. Global leadership can only be maintained if talented people from across the globe are encouraged to come here to study and work."