Free speech: The case of Rumeysa Ozturk
The Turkish student was confronted by masked federal agents and transported in an unmarked vehicle

Welcome to "Trump's America," said Jonah Valdez in The Intercept, where "you can be disappeared for writing an op-ed." If you haven't yet seen the chilling surveillance camera footage, Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, a Turkish Fulbright scholar at Tufts University, was walking to meet friends last week when masked federal agents seized her on a street in Somerville, Mass., and whisked her away in an unmarked SUV. For nearly a day, no one knew where Ozturk was, until she surfaced at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana. She is now awaiting deportation for "activities in support of Hamas," according to the Department of Homeland Security, or as Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, for "creating a ruckus."
Both allegations sound like references to last year's campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza, said Zack Beauchamp in Vox. Rubio says he's revoked the visas of "more than 300" students so far. But unlike, say, Mahmoud Khalil, the green-card-holding Columbia protest organizer arrested last month, the extent of Ozturk's "ruckus" appears to be an op-ed she co-authored in the Tufts Daily that calls on the university to divest from Israel. It says nothing "that even approximates support for Hamas." State agents, in other words, abducted a legal migrant for expressing a political opinion, an "attack on civil liberties that we would not hesitate to label as authoritarian in another country."
Ozturk wasn't "kidnapped" or "disappeared," said Rich Lowry in National Review. She was simply "arrested." Yes, the ICE officers wore masks—a prudent measure given the "doxxing" habits of the online left. But the agents treated Ozturk with respect and even kindness, one of them telling her, "I understand it's scary," and no doubt it was. Some unpleasantness is "inherent to any arrest," and unlike those grabbed off the streets of banana republics, Ozturk now gets a formal court hearing, with "ample legal representation," and nothing to lose but her student visa. When the worst-case scenario is being free "to go home to live your life however you please," these "lurid" comparisons to Third World torture regimes are grotesque and unfair.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Her punishment isn't the issue, said Jeffrey Blehar, also in National Review. Yes, the secretary of state has broad discretion to remove non-citizens from the U.S. But using that power to capriciously expel someone for expressing an unpopular opinion is "utterly abhorrent" and should be to all conservatives who claim to revere "free speech." It sounds like there could be more evidence against Ozturk, said The Free Press in an editorial. Speaking to reporters, Rubio seemed to dismiss the idea that he'd revoke someone's visa "just because you want to write op-eds." But if Ozturk did more than that, what was it? This administration's emerging pattern of detaining people for alleged crimes, but not providing evidence, risks eroding "public trust in the rule of law."
What if that's the goal? said Aymann Ismail in Slate. Week after week, arrest after arrest, the Trump administration is "pushing the limits of the law," and widening the circle of people with reason to fear persecution by the state for unspecified acts of speech or disloyalty. With the "brazen state abduction" of Ozturk, that circle now includes all foreign nationals, especially Muslims. Before long, it could be any of us. "No one is safe," said Will Bunch in The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Stunning and unprecedented" things are happening in Trump's America, "in broad daylight, on our formerly free sidewalks." The only consolation in Ozturk's shocking arrest is that we can finally "stop talking about 'the threat of creeping authoritarianism,' because tyranny is already here."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Nepal chooses toddler as its new ‘living goddess’
Under the Radar Girls between two and four are typically chosen to live inside the temple as the Kumari – until puberty strikes
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Under siege: Argentina’s president drops his chainsaw
Talking Point The self-proclaimed ‘first anarcho-capitalist president in world history’ faces mounting troubles
-
Sarkozy behind bars: the conviction dividing France
In the Spotlight Sarkozy speaks to the press with wife Carla Bruni at his side outside a Paris courtroom after the guilty verdict
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
‘This isn’t just semantics’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Miami Freedom Tower’s MAGA library squeeze
THE EXPLAINER Plans to place Donald Trump’s presidential library next to an iconic symbol of Florida’s Cuban immigrant community has South Florida divided
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal