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One Viral ICE Arrest Video, One Vital Missing Detail

Footage of Rumeysa Ozturk being detained by ICE sparked outrage. But her defenders are ignoring one inconvenient fact.

It’s no wonder the video of Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk being handcuffed and detained on a quiet residential street in Somerville, Massachusetts, has gone viral.

Viewed without context — masked, plainclothes ICE agents swooping in broad daylight and bundling her into the back of an unmarked SUV — the scene has a cinematic chill. It looks, frankly, sinister.

Critics of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on international student participation in last year’s wave of anti-Israel campus protests have declared the arrest a “move toward authoritarianism.” More than 30 Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, demanding an explanation.

“The rationale for this arrest appears to be this student’s expression of her political views,” the letter stated, referring to claims that Ozturk was targeted for signing an editorial in The Tufts Daily that criticized the university’s response to student demands for divestment and accused its leadership of ignoring the so-called “Palestinian genocide.”

I touched on the issue of free speech in a piece last week, noting the uniquely American approach — near-total freedom, with few legal limitations. But here’s the part critics seem eager to blur in the viral outrage: Rumeysa Ozturk is not an American citizen.

As DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin bluntly put it, Ozturk is a Turkish national who was granted the privilege to study in the U.S. on a visa. That privilege, she said, was revoked after DHS and ICE found she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”

“Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated,” McLaughlin said. “This is commonsense security.” You could practically see her eye roll through the screen.

For all the breathless discourse about free speech and creeping fascism, here’s what’s actually at stake: this isn’t a First Amendment issue. It’s a visa violation issue. Ozturk didn’t lose her right to speak — she lost her right to stay.

It really is that simple.

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