A university student from Ghana was eligible for deportation because he failed to maintain a full course load as his visa required, the Denver-based federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The reason he did not carry a full course load? He was jailed for 13 months for a rape charge that a jury later acquitted him of.

“The immigration system failed him by deporting him for losing student status that he could not maintain because he was detained while asserting his constitutional right to a jury trial,” said Edgar Chavarria, a law student at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, who represented Daniel Kofi Awuku-Asare along with immigration law instructor Tania N. Valdez.

In a March 16 opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Judge Nancy L. Moritz agreed with Awuku-Asare that federal law unambiguously places the burden on visiting foreign nationals to maintain their student status. However, factors other than a student’s own actions may also jeopardize their status.

“The statute contains no requirement that such failure be the fault of the visa holder or the result of some affirmative action taken by the visa holder,” she wrote.

Awuku-Asare came to the United States in 2012 using an F-1 student visa. Following studies in Florida and Tulsa, Okla., Awuku-Asare transferred to Rhema Bible Training College, based in Broken Arrow, Okla. The day he was scheduled to meet with the school to complete his transfer, police in Tulsa arrested Awuku-Asare and charged him with first-degree rape.

He was jailed between August 2017 and September 2018, until a jury acquitted him. However, as a consequence of his confinement, he was not enrolled in school full time.

The federal government sent Awuku-Asare a notice that he was deportable for failing to meet the conditions of his F-1 visa. An immigration judge heard Awuku-Asare’s argument that his lack of a full course load was attributable to his incarceration, but the judge nonetheless ordered him deported one month after his acquittal.

Awuku-Asare contended he was only eligible for deportation – also known as removal – if his failure to maintain the course load was his own. The U.S. Department of Justice disagreed, even suggesting Awuku-Asare’s acquittal said nothing about whether he actually committed a crime.

“The Government is essentially attempting to attach fault to the fact that Mr. Awuku-Asare was merely arrested, which is contrary to the basic principle of our Government’s criminal justice system that people charged with a crime are innocent until proven guilty,” responded Valdez in a court brief.

The court appointed DU’s Immigration Law and Policy Clinic to represent Awuku-Asare before the 10th Circuit. At oral argument, Chavarria maintained it was not “just for the government to remove someone under this removal statute for failure to maintain status, when the failure to maintain status is not the fault of the noncitizen.”

Judge Jerome A. Holmes, a member of the three-judge appellate panel, countered that Congress could have accounted for situations that were not the visa holder’s fault, but it did not.

“The silence here is deafening,” Holmes said. He also wondered why Awuku-Asare could not have applied for reinstatement of his F-1 status while he was jailed. Chavarria replied it was unclear whether Awuku-Asare could have completed the minimum required course load while incarcerated.

“Ultimately, he was at the hands of the criminal justice system in Oklahoma,” Chavarria said.

Awuku-Asare previously attempted to apply for another visa certification for crime victims, arguing he was subjected to false imprisonment. The Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office declined to certify his visa form.

“The present state of affairs puts my purpose in the United States and in life at large at risk,” Awuku-Asare wrote to the judge in his criminal case, asking for her endorsement of his application. He signed the letter “Acquitted Defendant.”

The government deported Awuku-Asare back to Ghana while his appeal before the 10th Circuit was pending. He is applying to universities, including in the U.S., according to Chavarria.

Chavarria added that the court decision “opens the door for the immigration agencies to abuse their power,” and he is reviewing Awuku-Asare’s legal options.

The case is Awuku-Asare v. Garland.