US government abducting that student in broad daylight

[SummerDaysOnTheWay]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/28/rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-trump-immigration-gaza

This is horrifying.
Is no one in America standing up to this?

Yes, free speech my arse.
Vance coming into Europe berating us for not being 'free' when masked men in black disappear students off the street... the cheek of it.
It'll be a cold day in hell before I consider sending any of my DCs to a US campus. And that was something I was seriously considering until last November.

These are truly terrifying times we live in.

Governor Pritzker (Illinois) really spelled it out for me in this one phrase:

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage.

They only want free speech when it’s something they agree with.

"You have the complete freedom to agree with your Government."

I was on a student visa for my university in the States. Never would I have dreamed of shouting pro terrorist slogans which is what these students did. It is easy to fall into feeling that you're an American too living in the land of the free, but at the end of the day you are a guest. And spouting end of western civilization and supporting people who celebrated 9/11 is not on. You're there to study. Period.

Hate speech is one thing, but the point here is that there is no proof that this student was a hate preacher or terrorism apologist. The slippery slope here is that incredibly subjective criteria are being applied and no due process. That's how terror prevails. Free speech is free speech. The whole point of the US was that you could believe all kinds of truly offensive stuff, until you engaged in proven threatening behaviour you were safe to say and write whatever. In fact, the rightwing nut jobs constantly harped on this point by accusing the left of authoritarian cancel culture - and they won, because cancel culture undermined the progressive message. However, no previous administration behaved like Russia or North Korea! This student being whisked off the street for writing an OpEd asking for her university to boycott Israel over Gaza is a political opinion. Not terrorism.

If you’re on a student visa in most countries you can’t go about making political statements. That’s what they sign up to. You have to control what you say and do on a student visa.

So it’s not horrifying
Its normal and she knew that but did it anyway

You are visiting that country to study. You have to behave appropriately as requested when you sign the documents to do so.

We're not talking about a blanket rule or understanding of what it means to study abroad. We're talking about what international students could expect from the US, what they are allowed to do and say etc. We're talking about US laws that are in fact still in force, ok? Whether or not you or I agree with the way this student conducted themselves is beside the point. This US administration is not behaving in a normal American way. Period (as they say).

Very silly living in America on a student visa and getting involved in something like this. You should not be politically active - you are there to study, not to change the country. It would have creating problems even in the best of times, never mind now.

People dont seem to understand that America has always been quite hostile to people they perceive as a threat - for example, we are talking about people being detained by immigration but this happened before, I know someone who was deported because they were suspected of planning to work on a guest visa. She was French, spent the night handcuffed in the disabled loo in the airport before being put on the flight back. It was around 20-25 year ago.

That's a completely different issue: if you have a tourist visa or visa waiver, the rules are indeed clear - do not work.
But this article highlights that the rule of law did not apply to this student. Again, it's not about the rights or wrongs of political engagement abroad! It's about what the rules allow you to do whether or not you are a citizen in the US. It's really not that hard to understand why it's a problem.

...Because of course, once they normalise this, they will come for anyone with an opinion. Then what? Will you guys say 'sure, you can't say that stuff out loud, that's on you'? Because that's the definition of totalitarianism.

Freedom of speech is not just for American citizens. Writing an oped is not a violation of student visas, whereas illegally working is.

Due process and habeas corpus also are not just for American citizens. You can't just snatch someone off the street, put them in secret detention and deport them without a single hearing to demonstrate why.

I can't believe there are people actually defending this. Shame on you.

OP Tim Walz is standing up for the U of Minnesota student who was detained, demanding answers.

American universities are being shamefully quiet for the most part.

Are they book burning and berating academia yet?
Very nasty shades of the past.

It’s disgusting that men in plain clothes can abduct a woman off the street like that.

We have laws around support of proscribed terrorists too, and a visa is conditional

This is the oped she wrote:
https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj

Please show where it supports terrorism

Why are people so blindly accepting US government narratives?

Even if she did support terrorism she is legally entitled to a hearing where the government must show its evidence, as so far every judge has ruled in these cases, because it is one of the most basic principles in American law

There is no evidence to suggest that these students shouted pro-terrorist slogans, spouted the end of western civilisation, or supported people who celebrated 9/11. And you are not there to "study" - at postgraduate level you are there to think. I deplore what has happened in Gaza and the attacks by Israel. I also deplore Hamas and the attacks by them in Israel. Nuanced thinking and rationalisation is something universities encourage, and if there was more of it around in the general population, then maybe we wouldn't be debating why Trump is in a psoition of power.

When I was a student (and subsequently) I often attended demonstrations to free terrorists. I recall one of them was Nelson Mandela. Hamas may be terrorists. Palestinians are not. Attacking an entire people for the actions of a few is also terrorism. But then, the Americans and Israelis aren't the only ones guilty of that. Britain hasn't got clean hands either.

It’s fairly obvious why they’re not happy with what was written

Even if what she wrote was a criminal offence (which is not evident), it is totally unacceptable for a group of masked security officers to approach her on the street unidentified and drag her away. It must have been terrifying.

The language is emotive and one sided. She has not been kidnapped or abducted- she has been detained for allegedly breaching her visa requirements. I don’t know what she has been accused of but certainly Mahmoud Khalil (also cited in the article as being “kidnapped”) is alleged to have serious involvement in terrorism contrary to his visa. She is entitled to a fair hearing either way.

i don’t agree with Trump on much but he is right that the type of rampant racism and terrorism support going on in parts of the us should be addressed.

It's not about 'happy'. It's about the rule of law.
It's fairly obvious why Putin is not happy with activists opposing his 'special operation'. Do you agree with him sending them to a gulag for 15 years?
The difference between the US and Russia is that until now you could say whatever made the government 'not happy' and not fear deportation or a gulag.
Trump should not have been allowed to run for president after Jan 6th. And yet, because they could not pin him down legally for his part in it, he was... The US was a democracy and I hate to see it slip into something else.

Elon Musk started out by illegally working while on a student visa, so why aren’t his ill gotten gains being confiscated by the USG?

It's called a STUDENT visa legally. Think by all means, but not promoting violence against the host country.

They wouldn't have taken her if they have no evidence.