Tufts students rallied in Medford and Somerville today in protest against the abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk by ICE. The Trump administration is making a point of persecuting pro-Palestine voices. That now includes Ozturk, a Tufts PhD student who was detained by secret police outside her Somerville apartment on Tuesday. Masked ICE agents abducting someone in broad daylight is horrifying no matter what. Knowing that the government did so in response to a pro-Palestian op-ed co-authored by Ozturk? It screams “American Gestapo” for a reason.
Ozturk Abduction Prompts MA Protests
Rumeysa Ozturk’s abduction by masked ICE agents isn’t the end of it either. Before the Tufts protest for Ozturk came protests for Columbia student organizer Mahmoud Khalil who was similarly detained by ICE. Despite a judge’s order meant to prevent the move without proper notice, the Trump administration transferred Ozturk over 1,000 miles away to Louisiana, where she remains in detention. The U.S. government has reportedly revoked Ozturk’s visa and is seeking to deport the Turkish national.
A TikTok by pslnational about the Tufts protest for Rumeysa Ozturk received over 9k likes and many supportive comments. Members of the crowd can be seen waving Palestinian flags and carrying signs denouncing the Trump administration. “She was kidnapped. Return her to her family❤️,” said one commenter. Another commenter focused on the video of Ozturk’s abduction, saying,
it was a KIDNAPPING. I saw the video, that was terrifying. All “cops” in plain civillian clothes and masked… why the need to hide their faces? AND Her lawyer had no idea where she was being held. [Sic]
If students at Tufts and other colleges don’t protest what happened to Rumeysa Ozturk, the government will have no fear of doing the same thing to someone else. People across the U.S. are speaking up on behalf of Khalil, Ozturk, and others on the growing list of political prisoners. The Trump administration may be demanding silence, but the cries of protest are getting louder all the time.
