He Was Acquitted Of Rape But His Student Visa Lapsed Due To The Charges. Now He’s Being Deported.

Daniel Awuku-Asare came to the United States from his native country of Ghana in 2012 via a student visa. He attended St. Leo University in St. Leo, Florida before transferring to Rehma Bible Training College in August 2017.

Just two weeks after transferring, Awuku-Asare was arrested and charged with first-degree rape. He was incarcerated for 13 months, during which time he couldn’t complete his coursework. He was ultimately found not guilty of the charge against him, but because his immigration status relied on him being a student, he was notified that he would be deported back to Ghana.

Awuku-Asare attempted to fight the deportation order, arguing that the Board of Immigration Appeals misinterpreted parted of a law that said “[a]ny [noncitizen] who was admitted as a nonimmigrant and who has failed to maintain the nonimmigrant status in which the [noncitizen] was admitted . . . or to comply with the conditions of any such status, is [removable],” according to court documents in the case. Awuku-Asare argued the statute held that a nonimmigrant could only be removed if “the failure to maintain status [is] attributable to the nonimmigrant.” He claimed that his failure to maintain his F-1 student visa status was due to his incarceration for a crime he was acquitted for and not because of his own direct actions.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit this week rejected Awuku-Asare’s arguments and ordered him to be deported. The court included in a footnote that a student with F-1 status could “attempt to reinstate a lapsed status, which involves filing two forms, meeting certain

requirements, and asking the district director to exercise his or her discretion to grant the reinstatement request,” but that Awuku-Asare did not attempt this process. It is unclear whether he was aware such a process existed.

Awuku-Asare’s case is not the first time a student has been dubiously accused of rape or sexual assault and had his visa revoked due to the erroneous claims. To be fair, Awuku-Asare’s acquittal does not necessarily mean his accuser lied; it could mean there was not enough evidence to convict. The exact details are unknown at this time.

Other immigrant students have faced similar fates as Awuku-Asare. In 2014, former Duke University student Lewis McLeod was expelled just three days before his final exams – weeks before he was set to graduate. He was accused of sexual assault by a woman who said she was too drunk to consent, yet McLeod insisted she had been coherent during their encounter. Duke found him responsible based on the woman’s accusations, ignoring McLeod’s denials, and withheld his degree. McLeod, a native of Australia, was sent back to his home country while waiting for his lawsuit against Duke to work its way through the courts. In 2018, McLeod was finally granted his degree.

A similar situation in 2015 nearly sent a student back to Syria, where two members of his family had been killed due to civil war. The student hadn’t received his U.S. visa for permanent residency when he was accused of sexual assault. The student said the woman initiated the encounter but she claimed she was too drunk to consent. A friend of the accuser said she didn’t seem intoxicated the night of the encounter, but the school accepted her claim that she would not have done what she done had she been sober. A judge stayed the student’s suspension, saving him from being sent to Syria.

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