The following is an open letter I sent to my Congressional Representatives. You can scroll to the bottom for a link to send a similar letter to your representatives in the US government.
To Whom It May Concern:
On Tuesday, March 25th, Tufts PhD student and Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk was abducted on her way to an iftar with her friends by masked, plainclothes federal agents who had been watching her for two days prior. She was taken from Massachusetts to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, despite being in the States on a valid F-1 student visa.
Her “crime”? Co-authoring an op-ed requesting that her school, Tufts University, divests from Israeli holdings.
During my grad school years in Missouri, I was friends with many international students. Learning from their perspectives gave me a wider and healthier view of the world. My understanding became more complex and nuanced. They received the same from us, American students. Friends from more authoritarian societies learned what it was like to live in a nation where individual freedom of speech and press were respected, and they were exposed to the possibility that people of diverse thought and religion could live together openly and respectfully. I am saddened that our current government wants to change this.
By all means, there must be accountability for crimes. However, Rumeysa has been charged with no crime. What are we proving to the world if we arrest students because our government disagrees with their beliefs? What do we teach the world by targeting students for speaking their minds? What have we become? This is shameful. The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant student visa. Rumeysa is simply an international student, here temporarily to obtain her degrees, and we as a nation have failed her.
On Rumeysa’s arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that they have now revoked her visa. He said, “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campus. We’ve given you a visa and you decide to do that we’re going to take it away. We don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country.”
I find Secretary of State Rubio’s words completely unacceptable and a disgrace on our country, whose core principle is meant to be freedom. At an alarming rate, more and more students are being taken off the street and sent to ICE facilities thousands of miles away for simply exercising their protected right to freedom of speech. Mahmoud Khalil, who was a legal permanent resident, is still not free from detention. His green card was revoked for nonviolent protest – a year after the fact.
Our First Amendment rights are meant to protect our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition. Co-authoring an op-ed is not a crime. Neither is attending protests, or organizing them. If a dissenting opinion is punishable by revoked visas, revoked green cards, and deportation, what is next? Are any of us free? Are any of us safe?
We cannot let the goal post of free speech shift.
As your constituent, I am asking that you demand an end to this madness. Demand an end to these abductions. I am asking that you support Rumeysa Ozturk, Mahmoud Khalil, support our students and all those who exercise their First Amendment rights.
Resist our country’s slip into fascism.
Yours sincerely,
Jennie Telfer
Compose your own letter on behalf of Rumeysa, Mahmoud, and our first amendment rights – or send a form letter – through the Friends of Sabeel North America website HERE.
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