On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio supported the detention of a foreign Ph.D. student at Tufts University.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, was captured in a video being apprehended by plain-clothes federal officers and escorted into an unmarked van.
Rubio commented on the situation, stating, “If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we are not going to give you a visa.”
While it is known that Ozturk wrote an op-ed defending Palestine for her newspaper last year, the details of her protest activities or the specific reasons for her arrest remain unclear.
Tufts University stated it was unaware of her arrest beforehand, which took place off-campus.
Rubio remarked, “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,” he added.
The video showing Ozturk’s arrest sparked anger on social media, with Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) calling the footage “chilling.”
Ozturk is one of at least nine international students and faculty members who have been targeted by ICE as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests.
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