During spring break, Trump’s administration got backlash from many people because Pete Hegseth exposed his war plans in a group chat that included a reporter from The Atlanic and because Trump won’t rule out a third term, which is prohibited by the Constitution.
One incident that stood out to me was the ICE Department detaining an international university student from Tufts University. The international student that was detained on March 28 in Somerville, Massachusetts was Rumeysa Ozturk. She was detained due to allegedly engaging in activities in support of Hamas.
When I saw this, it felt wrong seeing that happen. It made me think that not only could this happen to me, but this could also happen to other students in local schools too. Something that confused me was that the ICE agent appeared to be undercover just to arrest one student. I don’t know why they couldn’t detain her without going undercover.
In the video, you can see that the ICE agents appeared to be undercover in civilian clothing when he approached the student, Rumeysa Ozturk, leading to the agents forcefully taking her away in an unmarked vehicle. This was scary to see, especially if you imagine yourself in that situation. Imagine the fear of that student, when undercover ICE agents went up to her and took her away in the streets.
The student was detained due to a visa revocation from the State Department that was allegedly due to her anti-semitism.
I feel bad that this kind of thing happens not only to students, but to other people as well. It feels wrong to just forcefully take them away in broad daylight.
Tufts University didn’t know about the incident beforehand, which led to concerns from the university and support for the student’s aid.
If the authorities just contacted the university for them to at least formally detain the student it would’ve been better; but they didn’t.
This incident changed my view on ICE and the Trump administration. It’s wrong to detain a student that hasn’t done anything too bad, especially if they’re just there to pursue an education.
Not only is this happening at Tufts University, but it’s also happening in Minnesota, Alabama, and even Colorado State University, where visas were revoked from 22 international students. Seeing this article, I feel like ICE is only targeting people who seemed to participate in campus protests, giving no proof of the students participating in the protests.
Also, in the article, you can see a quote from Trump’s social media post. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-semitic, anti-American activity,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
This is just wrong. International students that are trying to learn in the universities shouldn’t be called terrorist sympathizers when they haven’t done anything wrong.
I hope that this doesn’t continue on further and that schools and universities try to protect their students from these kinds of incidents.
