When the Freedoms of Immigrants are Compromised, We’re All in Jeopardy

Rumeysa Ozturk was surrounded and seized. There is no other way to describe the event that occurred on March 25th, 2025, during which Ms. Ozturk was aggressively apprehended and thrust into an unmarked vehicle by six members of the government-sanctioned goon squad known as ICE. Until that fateful day, she held a valid student visa. Now, she is being held as a political prisoner for the transgression of opposing Israel’s sustained military violence against the Palestinian people.

I am less concerned about Ms. Ozturk’s status as a student (although I sympathize with what this interruption means for her studies) than the chilling fact that she is a woman continuing to endure government-inflicted trauma; a woman who is isolated from her family and loved ones; a woman censured for the crimes of compassion and editorial honesty. And, while I have never met her, I care deeply about the fact that she is my neighbor.

Ms. Ozturk is a Turkish national and Muslim. I am a U.S. national and Jewish. Since her abrupt detention, I have heard others describe this valued member of my community as a “terrorist,” and “anti-semitic,” due to her criticism of the ongoing Zionist occupation of Palestine. There is perhaps nothing more stigmatizing of the Jewish people than reducing us to a smokescreen for Islamophobia, mass atrocity, and the suppression of free speech. Social media users spin webs of aspersions claiming Ms. Ozturk has been manhandled and confined for my safety. 

The knowledge that six armed men abducted an unarmed woman down the street from where I live fails to instill a sense of safety. The horror of this incident is only rivaled by its rationale: the current U.S. government has incarcerated my neighbor for being an immigrant who dared to exercise her constitutional rights––specifically, for writing an article not unlike the one you’re reading now. While court records indicate that Ms. Ozturk’s student visa was revoked due her alleged support of a terrorist organization, her captors have yet to produce evidence to support their accusations. 

If we designate some rights as conditional––such as those of equal protection, due process, and freedom of expression––then they’re all conditional. Suddenly, the scaffolding that supports democracy folds into a material flexible enough to restrain it. And the U.S. has always applied those restraints most aggressively and systemically to the rights of social scapegoats: Black people, Indigenous people, gender-nonconforming people, working class people, immigrants. 

I do not consent to any party using my Jewish identity as an instrument in this process. My immigrant ancestors did not flee persecution in Europe only to become its pretext in the U.S. And a nation is only as good, as healthy, as its citizens’ ability to critique it. That ability, already wan in the U.S., is now being held hostage by armed men with the authority of the government behind them. 

I will end with a quotation by the great Jewish prophet, Rod Serling, who was no stranger to censorship: “So long as men write what they think then all of the other freedoms––all of them––may remain intact. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of the truth, an article of faith, an act of courage.” 

As long as the freedoms of immigrants continue to be compromised, we are all in jeopardy.

Update 6/15/25: Thankfully, Ms. Ozturk has been released after over a month in federal custody. However, the immigration proceedings against her continue. She urges us all to not forget those still being held in detention centers, away from their families and communities

Sam G. is a Simmons MPH student, full-time case manager, and acknowledged rabble-rouser. They enjoy learning from their classmates, advocating for housing justice, and cheesy horror films.