Last week, masked immigration authorities abducted Rumeysa Ozturk on the street outside of her Massachusetts home and took her into custody. Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University, was on her way to meet friends and break her fast. According to Reuters, immigration authorities have accused her of “engaging in activities in support of Hamas” for which they revoked her visa, despite that simply not being the case.

In March 2024, Ozturk was one of four students to co-author an op-ed in The Tufts Daily, the university’s student newspaper, that criticized the school’s response to resolutions passed by the student senate. The resolutions passed demanded the University “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, apologize for University President Sunil Kumar’s statements, disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.” The op-ed says that the University’s response “has been wholly inadequate and dismissive of the Senate, the collective voice of the student body.” 

“We urge President Kumar and the Tufts administration to meaningfully engage with and actualize the resolutions passed by the Senate,” the op-ed said. 

Despite a judge’s temporary order to keep her in Massachusetts, Ozturk was swiftly transferred to Louisiana. 

Ozturk, a Fulbright Scholar, committed no crime. She simply expressed an opinion. She used her voice to highlight an issue she evidently cared about deeply, just like many of us United States citizens.. And because the Trump administration did not agree with an opinion she had every right to express, they revoked her visa and she is now pending deportation.

There is a long-standing precedent that asserts noncitizens generally have the same free speech rights as U.S. citizens while on U.S. soil. But the Trump administration has proven time and time again that it does not care about precedent, and precedent about free speech rights is no exception. 

Ozturk is not the first international student to become a target of the Trump administration for their speech. She is unlikely to be the last. 

On March 8, Mahmoud Kalil, a graduate student at Columbia University and green card holder, made headlines when he was arrested by immigration authorities in front of his pregnant wife, an American citizen. His crime? Protesting for Palestine, something the Trump administration equates with being “pro-Hamas.” 

Just recently, Cornell graduate student Momodou Taal self-deported after his student visa was revoked for participating in protests for Palestinians in Gaza. The same goes for Ranjani Srinavasan, a doctoral student at Columbia University who self-deported to Canada.

According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Trump administration has revoked at least 300 student visas, many of those belonging to international students who engaged in pro-Palestinian protests or speech. 

Make no mistake, this crackdown will have a chilling effect on free speech in our country. It will inevitably push many into silence in fear of retaliation – and there will be no denying the threat that pushes them into silence.

If they will target noncitizens for their speech, then in time, they will have no problem coming after citizens too. If noncitizens can have their visas revoked, green cards taken away, be taken off the street and deported for exercising their right to free speech when they are supposed to be afforded that right, then do we, as U.S. citizens, really have a right to free speech either? 

Maybe we do on paper, but in practice? I don’t think so. Not anymore.