Rumeysa Ozturk is a 30-year-old graduate student at Tufts University and a native of Turkey who wears a traditional Muslim headscarf. Six weeks ago, she was arrested by masked federal agents on a street corner near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, and sent to a detention camp in Louisiana.
Her only crime was that she dared to write an opinion piece for the student paper at Tufts, “criticizing the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands,” reports The New York Times.
Last week she was finally freed by a federal district judge, William K. Sessions III, who reprimanded the administration, saying there was “absolutely no evidence” to support its claim that Ozturk was a supporter of Hamas and a threat to public safety. Her arrest, Sessions warned, could potentially chill “the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens.”
President Trump has often claimed he’s the victim of scurrilous “witch hunts,” but now that’s exactly what he’s doing — ruthlessly persecuting anybody who contradicts and criticizes his policies. Some of his main targets are foreign students like Ozturk, who are in this country legally but could face deportation on trumped-up charges of disloyalty.
His crusade marks the return of the Thought Police: a modern version of the Red Scare and the blacklist, the Palmer raids and the McCarthy hearings, the baton-waving cops crushing civil rights demonstrations across the South — all those shameful episodes in our past when powerful forces tried to impose political orthodoxy and squelch dissent.
In ordering the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a leader of Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protesters, District Judge Geoffrey Crawford “drew parallels between the current political climate and McCarthyism,” noted the Times.
“This is not the first time that the nation has seen chilling action by the government intended to shut down debate,” Crawford said.
Mahdawi, 34, has held a green card entitling him to permanent residency for 10 years. He was arrested as he appeared for his citizenship exam. In granting Mahdawi’s release, Crawford cited his extensive ties to his community and denied that he posed a danger to the public.
“He noted that the court had received more than 90 submissions from community members, academic experts and professors who know Mr. Mahdawi, ‘many of them Jewish,’ attesting to his character and consistently describing him as ‘peaceful,'” reports the Times.
As judges have repeatedly rebuffed the administration over students like Ozturk and Mahdawi, Trump’s fury and frustration is growing. His deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, has even suggested suspending the constitutional right of habeas corpus, an ancient legal doctrine that permits prisoners to challenge the validity of their incarceration.
While habeas corpus has been suspended only four times in the history of our nation, primarily during the Civil War, Miller argues that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus could be suspended in time of invasion,” and that the influx of illegal migrants counts as an “invasion” under the law. “So that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” he added.
“Essentially everything Miller says about suspending habeas corpus — which would eliminate the ability of the courts to rule on immigration matters — is wrong,” retorts CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig. “The Constitution makes clear that suspension of habeas corpus is to be reserved for actual rebellion or invasion posing the most dire threats to public safety.”
Legal expert Jeffrey Toobin argued on CNN that “suspending habeas corpus is considered such an extreme, extreme step. This is an example of how losses in court (are) causing this administration to escalate its rhetoric.”
The war on student dissenters is not only legally and morally wrong, but self-defeating. The Association of American Universities estimates there are 1.1 million foreign students in this country who contribute $44 billion to the economy, and many universities depend heavily on the tuitions paid by visiting grad students. But they contribute far more than money.
As MIT President Sally Kornbluth told Reuters, her campus “would be gravely diminished without the students and scholars who join us from other nations.” As a professor for 34 years, I totally agree, and I cherish the students from Venezuela and China, India and Colombia who have enlivened and enriched my classroom. Rumeysa Ozturk and other students like her could still face deportation, and yet when she landed back in Boston after being released, she said, “I have faith in the American system of justice.”
It’s now up to federal judges everywhere to reject the Thought Police and redeem her faith.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( From the desk of… The thought police return )
Also on site :