In recent months, ICE has carried out a series of alarming arrests. Most people didn’t care when agents rounded up alleged Latino gangbangers and shipped them to de facto concentration camps in El Salvador. But now they’re unnerved. Because ICE is targeting foreign students for activities protected under the First Amendment.
The Case of Rumeysa Ozturk
Rumeysa Ozturk is a 30-year-old Turkish national and Fulbright Scholar pursuing a Ph.D. at Tufts University. On Tuesday, masked ICE agents in plain clothes arrested her in broad daylight near campus in Boston. They ignored bystanders demanding to know who they were. And frankly, they looked more like a gang of White supremacist Proud Boys doing Trump’s bidding for pardoning them en masse.
They immediately flew her to a South Louisiana ICE Processing Center — defying a judge’s order to give a 48-hour notice. DHS accused her of supporting Hamas, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked her student visa.
A Broader Pattern of Repression
Ozturk’s arrest isn’t isolated:
- Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist, was arrested by ICE agents in March 2025. Despite holding a green card and lacking any criminal charges, Khalil was accused of leading activities aligned with Hamas. His arrest has been widely criticized as an attack on free speech. ?
- Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia University student and lawful permanent resident from South Korea, was arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest. She is suing the Trump administration to stop her deportation, arguing that the government’s actions violate her First Amendment rights. ?
- Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow, was arrested on accusations of spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism. His attorney refutes these claims, attributing the targeting to his Palestinian wife and her father’s former Hamas affiliation.
Revoking visas and summarily deporting students are part of a broader Trump campaign to suppress free speech and academic freedom. So it’s only a matter of time before they start targeting students for protesting Trump himself.
A warning from history
The First Amendment protects free speech. Yet these students are being targeted for views the Trump administration finds inconvenient. Using immigration enforcement to suppress dissent sets a dangerous precedent. It undermines the very principles the US was founded on.
Trump’s America First rhetoric has inspired a fascist revival. That’s why I’ve started quoting German pastor Martin Niemöller. Sure, Timothy Snyder is more famous for writing on tyranny corrupting and co-opting democracy. But Niemöller was warning us long before — about indifference in the face of creeping authoritarianism:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out —
because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out —
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me —
and there was no one left to speak for me.
Sure enough, ICE’s extrajudicial arrests started with gangbangers. Now they’ve expanded to student activists. History doesn’t repeat—but it rhymes. Don’t be surprised if naturalized citizens from “shithole” countries are next. We need to speak up — before they come for us.
Frankly, if you didn’t know better, you’d think these arrests were happening in a police state like Russia. But Trump seems hell-bent on turning our Jeffersonian democracy into a Putin-style autocracy.
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