This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m focused on the Trump administration’s attempt to deport a foreign student without trial, seemingly as a punishment for her political views.
What’s the latest? On Tuesday, masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside Boston arrested Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and Tufts University PhD student who was in the US legally on a student visa. ICE is holding Ozturk in a Louisiana facility and plans to deport her. Ozturk’s lawyers have sued to stop the deportation, and the case is working its way through the courts.
Why is the administration trying to deport Ozturk? So far, the administration has not charged Ozturk with a crime nor presented any evidence that she engaged in criminal activity.
Ozturk last year co-authored an op-ed in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that he revoked her visa because of her participation in the anti-Gaza war movement. Rubio said the movement had engaged in vandalism and other crimes, but he did not say Ozturk was involved.
Is this an isolated incident? The case is very similar to that of Mahmoud Khalil, and more arrests may be coming: Rubio suggested Thursday that he’d revoked around 300 student visas on similar grounds.
Can the administration do this? The administration argues that a 1952 immigration law gives Rubio the right to revoke the green card of any immigrant that he considers a threat to national security or acting against the interest of the United States. The courts will weigh that claim’s validity.
What’s the big picture? The Trump administration has found another way to use the federal government to punish people for their political views. If Ozturk is being punished for some other reason, it’s incumbent on the government to publicly make that case. But so far, they haven’t felt the need to try. That’s a troubling sign for the civil liberties of immigrants, and for everyone else as well.
I know not everyone agrees, but I think it’s highly likely that there’s alien life awaiting us in space. And so I devoured this episode of Vox’s Unexplainable podcast about the search for extraterrestrials. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and elsewhere. But given how beautiful life on this planet is, might I recommend listening to it outside? Thanks for reading. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.
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