ST. PAUL — 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 called Wanyama “a great asset to Minnesota” and said 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.