"We Have a Common Enemy-And It's Not Your Immigrant Neighbor"

"Rumeysa Ozturk's seizure by plainclothes and masked agents outside of her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, in March 2025 had all the hallmarks of a kidnapping. The PhD student, originally from Turkey, was flown to a detention facility in Louisiana, stripped of her F1 student visa, and slated for deportation-all as part of a larger effort by the Trump administration targeting international students for pro-Palestine speech. The draconian arrest sparked outrage among elected officials, advocacy groups, and more."

"If you want to know what [rapid response] looks like, it's getting a call at 10 pm that your member was kidnapped off the street, there's video of it that's going to hit the new-and springing into action," says Dave Foley, President of SEIU Local 509. Foley, whose local represents nearly 30,000 workers in human services and education across Massachusetts, was on the frontlines in fighting for Ozturk's release."

"Ozturk's arrest came as just one of many escalations in the Trump administration's crusade against immigrants in the United States-including the illegal military occupation of Democrat-controlled cities, the repurposing of prison camps, and the use of detention to third-party nations. However, the expansion of ICE, immigrant detention, and rollbacks to civil liberties that've been at the center of Donald Trump's second presidential administration are not entirely new. They build atop histories of anti-immigrant sentiment and policies-some more recent than others."

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student, was seized by plainclothes, masked agents outside her Somerville home in March 2025, flown to a Louisiana detention facility, stripped of her F1 visa, and slated for deportation as part of a campaign targeting international students for pro-Palestine speech. The arrest provoked outrage from elected officials, advocacy groups, labor organizers, and activists. After two months of intense mobilization by a coalition of pro-Palestine activists, free speech advocates, and labor unions, Ozturk was released on bail and remains free. The incident forms part of a broader escalation in immigrant detention, ICE expansion, and civil liberties rollbacks built on earlier anti-immigrant policies.

Read at The Nation