By now, most have heard of the Mar. 25 “taking” of the Tufts University Ph.D. student Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, in Somerville, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. The term, along with “disappeared” is horrifying to use in conjunction with any human being. It is also wrong and deeply disturbing.
A young woman walking down the street is approached by six masked agents in black, not in uniform, with no identification. One of the men approaches and grabs Ozturk, she screams not understanding what is happening, they handcuff her and take her away. Not to Vermont, where a judge ordered, but to rural Louisiana where she remains today.
This is hard to read about let alone watch. And watch you must.
Take two minutes to view Ozturk’s abduction at bit.ly/3FXnwvm. Picture a younger version of yourself, your son or daughter or a friend, in college or university where student activism, until now, has flourished and been encouraged. Imagine her parents watching this happen – in horror.
Her alleged crime? Freely expressing herself as a co-author with three others writers in an opinion column in The Tufts Daily, the student newspaper, that asked the university to adopt student Senate resolutions that acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, ask the president to apologize for his statements and to divest itself of companies with ties to Israel.
The start of the conflict between Palestinian and Israeli forces began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and seized 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliation has killed over 50,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of Gaza. Ozturk wrote an opinion and was taken. The U.S. government has provided no evidence that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, as it alleged.
It didn’t start with Ozturk, and it won’t end with her. On March 8, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and legal resident married to an American citizen, for his pro-Palestinian activism. Today, he also is in a detention center in Louisiana.
Being against the violence waged at Palestinians by Israel does not by association make you pro-Hamas, a militant and U.S.-designated terrorist group. The U.S. government revoking Ozturk’s visa, and 300 more including 10 at Colorado State University and University of Colorado, and arresting and detaining Khalil, is anti-American.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio maintains he’s doing so to remove those found to be acting against national foreign policy interests or to have been involved in a crime. “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said. “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.” There are examples of on-campus student violence, but not with these two.
These actions are illegal, violate Ozturk and Khalil’s constitutional rights, including the right to free speech and due process – knowing the charges against you and for what you are being detained – the hallmark of our democracy. They also violate the Declaration of Human Rights’ “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
Tufts University is working to support Ozturk while Columbia, at the center of the administration’s battle with institutions of higher education, is not supporting Khalil. Instead, it has been silent and is “obeying in advance,” as it faces $400 million in funding cuts the administration made in early March. Also something The Washington Post and L.A. Times did when their owners chose to not endorse Kamala Harris for president.
The president is using emergency powers, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and a 1990 update to the Immigration and Nationality Act to rapidly accelerate deportations and bypass procedures and protections in immigration law. These actions are the president of the free world inflicting trauma on international students, their families and their peers.
“If we do not protect our speech, we may soon find our own in jeopardy,” wrote the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University’s student newspaper.
The Journal’s editorial board agrees. We will keep writing our dissent in our little part of the world as we work to fight tyranny and speak for those who cannot.
