I would be remiss if I didn't offer my thoughts on ICE's detention of Turkish born Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk on the streets of Somerville on Tuesday night, no more than a couple of miles away.
As with Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University, I don't have much sympathy for Ozturk's views where it concerns Israel. I don't accept the claims Ozturk made in an editorial she co-wrote a year ago in the Tufts Daily accusing Israel of committing genocide. Ozturk is probably both pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic and someone whom I would stay as far away as possible.
However, like many people, I saw surveillance footage of her arrest and was utterly appalled. The ICE officers looked more like bank robbers than law enforcement. The first ICE officer physically assaults Ozturk.
I know the Trump Administration wants to make an example of foreign students who they believe support Hamas by revoking their student visas or their green cards. But in so doing they end up turning them into sympathetic figures.
It is also difficult to take the Trump Administration regarding this campaign when their envoys keep saying nice things about Hamas. They can't have it both ways though Secretary of State Marco Rubio is trying:
If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus -- we're not going to give you a visa.
Yet, at this point, neither Rubio nor anyone else in the Trump DoJ has specifically accused her of committing vandalism, harassing Jewish students or being involved in taking over campus buildings much less having direct involvement with Hamas.
If they have evidence and facts that Ozturk has done these things or worse (i.e. provide financial support to Hamas) then I will reconsider my opinion. But if they had this information then they would have already charged her with these offenses.
As it stands, U.S. District CIourt Judge Denise Casper has ordered Ozturk's deportation halted pending a hearing which is what ought to have happened in the first place if there were legitimate concerns about her student visa. But the Trump Administration doesn't have legitimate concerns about anything other than their own glory.
Again, I do not share Rumeysa Ozturk's views on Israel. But those aren't grounds to deny her due process and her day in court. If the Trump Administration has more evidence regarding Ozturk's activities, then let's see it. If not, then they ought to leave her alone no matter how repugnant her views on Israel and Jews might be. I nor anyone else is obligated to associate oneself with her or her views.
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