Tufts student: Video shows masked agents arresting Rumeysa Ozturk | Hacker News Reader

Tufts student: Video shows masked agents arresting Rumeysa Ozturk

bostonglobe.com

184 pointsperihelions51 comments

Free speech advocates: It doesn't matter what this person said. In this case they wrote an opinion piece in a college newspaper. For this they had their Visa revoked and have been pulled off the street at my son's college. This is not ok! I don't agree with her opinion, many people don't, but she is allowed to have it, and to speak clearly in the public square. THIS IS NOT OK.

Article in question: https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj

An F-1 visa can be revoked if the U.S. government determines the holder has violated its conditions: * failing to maintain full-time enrollment or engaging in unauthorized work * committed acts that breach U.S. law, such as criminal behavior * activities deemed a national security threat under the Immigration and Nationality Act

We don't have all of the information in the case, hopefully it does come out.

Marco Rubio has confirmed (in a press conference today) that Rumeysa Ozturk is being deported purely based on her opinions, not based on any illegal actions she has taken.

This will get flagged and killed by users claiming it's because they don't want politics here, but really just don't want to admit to themselves what's going on. Some things are worth standing up for.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came

Or it'll just get an invisible penalty to do the same.

The story can also be considered on-topic because it shows how the USA is increasingly becoming a bad place to start a business.

When foreign talent can be snatched by masked secret police at any time and the rule of law is increasingly ignored, it hardly creates a favorable business environment.

If you don't think the US is driving fast towards a fascist dictatorship, you need to open your eyes.

Don't wait til you're targeted. Speak up now. Call your representatives. Go to protests. Be loud. Support and protect those who are close to you.

When masked thugs disappear someone who isn't accused of any crime and then no one knows where that person is at and they're denied their civil rights, that's kidnapping.

And said masked thugs need to start being treated commensurately -- as the kidnappers that they are.

This is nuts, “we are the police”, cool.

Things are starting to look awfully like an authoritarian state around here. Disappearing dissidents off the street is not a good look.

For people outside the US: would you travel to the US now? What if your employer asked you to do it - what would you say? How do you feel about conferences and events held in the US?

no, no, not going.

No.

I would say I wouldn't go.

Holding conferences on the US was already a complete barrier, as it would require a work visa, and even if I really wanted to go, I'd need every information and inscription to be available 6 months in advance.

No, I would not. ICE has already detained Canadians, and I'm not looking to try my luck. I've already cancelled a work trip to a convention in Vegas.

> For people outside the US: would you travel to the US now?

Yes. I would go to a conference to the USA, although that's incredibly rare that Canadian companies pay for the travel. Local conferences ( same city as the office one employed ) are OK though.

No. I've already told my employer that I will not join one planned trip to the US this year. From the travel plans I believe I'm not the only one.

Absolutely not (from Sweden) and I'll refuse any conference or event held in the US.

It's not a theoretical for me anymore, I've already cancelled a trip I was planning this summer, and have expressed concerns with friends and family who are still thinking of making the journey.

Absolutely no way to get me there voluntarily.

Also ICE has not told her lawyer where she is currently being held.

not an accident - if they decline to tell the lawyer where she is, then lawyers can't file a suit at the correct court and so there is de facto no judicial review available until her location is revealed.

This is terrifying.

The US Government is now actively "disappearing" people....

Are we sure the 'police' are Americans at all? They didn't identify themselves. (My first thought was that it was Turkish agents)

They're DHS agents, according to her lawyer.

"The lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, said Wednesday afternoon that she still does not know where her client is being held and has not been able to contact her."

Hence my question. We'll see!

I responded based on information in another article: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-03-26/tufts-internation...

And indeed looks like DHS confirms they have her.

The reason I was a bit reserved was because that's not how I expect US officials to behave.

have you not seen the news the last couple of months? this is exactly how US officials are behaving.

The Turkish government doesn't care about this kind of stuff. If Turkish agents black-bagged anyone in the US, it'd be either Gulen or a Kurdish separatist.

(Michael Flynn discussed black-bagging Gulen as a favor to Erdogan during the first Trump administration, but that proposal went nowhere [0,1]).

[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41947451 ("Ex-Trump aide Mike Flynn 'offered $15m by Turkey for Gulen'" (2017))

[1] https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/jury-convicts-flynn-... ("Jury Convicts Flynn Intel Group Founder of Conspiring to Act as an Undisclosed Agent of Turkey" (2019))

This is what she was targetted for writing: https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj

Supposedly they revoked her visa after nabbing her too. Absolutely atrocious horrific horseshit.

Since when do police officers wear masks in plainclothes while making arrests? They're DHS agents, says her lawyer. https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-03-26/tufts-internation...

As far as I can tell, she was doxed by a pro-Israel group for supporting BDS and lending her name to a Tufts Daily op-ed calling for Tufts to adopt a resolution to acknowledge a Palestinian genocide: https://canarymission.org/individual/Rumeysa_Ozturk

Has anyone been deported for BDS support? Her visa has been revoked.

There was this song from early 80s by UK band Discharge: "Free Speech for the Dumb". It came to US when Metallica covered it in early 90s and people there though that it was praising free speech - that 'even dumb deserve free speech'.

Meanwhile the song is about empty phrase that 'free speech' is. Empty phrase.

hackernews needs more d-beat. thanks for reminding me.

https://archive.ph/hJ4Q8

De-escalation and bystander intervention training.

https://righttobe.org/upcoming-free-trainings/

Somewhat incredibly, the administration is citing a McCarthy-era 1952 law that many read as explicitly antisemitic and targeted at Jewish eastern-european survivors of the holocaust lest they be too sympathetic to communism as the legal basis for these actions. That law sought to keep people out, but the administration seems to believe it can also be used to deport people.

An ironic quote:

"In a 1952 edition of The New York Times, then-Anti-Defamation League president Benjamin Epstein was quoted as saying that immigration regulations like the McCarran law were 'examples of the worst kind of legislation, discriminatory and abusive of American concepts and ideals.'"[0]

[0]: https://forward.com/news/702427/mccarran-walter-act-state-de...

The ADL declined to make an endorsement in the last election.

Their press page doesn't mention this incident one way or another. They did express concern that the anti-DEI push removed some Holocaust articles from government web stes.

I wonder if they're reconsidering their choices.

This is ridiculous. And people should be aware that this is happening. Why is this flagged?

there's a significant voting contingent on this site who flag every post that is about the US government behaving horrifically.

a better question is why dang permits this.

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