The TOI Correspondent from Washington: Foreign students are under mental siege in America. If they have political views that are inimical to US interests they better keep it to themselves or go home, they have been told. Their hosts, US universities, have been warned by the Trump administration that they risk being de-certified if they allow political activism that goes against US policies.
Fear and distress is now coursing through America’s free-spirited campuses after US authorities conveyed the messages graphically this week with the detention — and what some described as an abduction — by authorities of a Turkish post-doc student at Tufts University, ostensibly for pro-Hamas activism.
In videos posted online, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and doctoral student, was accosted by masked undercover agents, bundled into a car, and taken away to a detention center in Louisiana, which appears to be the take-to state for political detentions by US authorities of foreign students.
Ozturk, who held a valid F-1 visa and was doing doctoral research in child study and human development, was on the phone with her mother and on her way to break her Ramazan fast when she was arrested. She was reportedly being watched for two days before she was detained. US officials said he was engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
In a separate incident, Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian doctoral student studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama, was detained from his home at 5 am on Tuesday under unspecified charges. Citing other students, the campus newspaper Crimson White said Doroudi’s F-1 student visa had been revoked several months ago but the university’s International Student and Scholar Services advised him that this revocation was not unusual and that he could remain in the US as long as he maintained his student status.
According to a report in Axios, more than 300 foreign students have had their student visas revoked in three weeks since the Trump administration’s “Catch and Revoke” policy — aimed at activist foreign students — has been in operation. Only a few have come to light, including the case of Ranjani Srinivasan, the Indian post-doc who self-deported after her visa was revoked.
Students from the middle-east and Gulf countries appear to be at greatest risk although in one case, Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Green Card holder from South Korea, has filed a lawsuit against the administration after learning the State Department plans to revoke her status and deport her for campus activism.
In fact, according to the Axios report, the Trump administration is discussing plans to try to block certain colleges from having any foreign students if it decides too many are “Hamasniks” ( pro-Hamas activists) on the campus. “Every institution that has foreign students … will go through some sort of review. You can have so many bad apples in one place that it leads to decertification of the school … I don’t think we’re at that point yet. But it is not an empty threat,” it quoted one administration official as saying.
The crackdown has alarmed campuses and the liberal political spectrum, with growing concern about America’s global reputation as a beacon of free speech not to speak of the economic fallout. Many campus mandarins and local lawmakers are incensed because universities, particularly those with large foreign contingents, are crank up local economies.
“Massachusetts has been welcoming students and immigrants for four centuries. The footage I saw today of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk being detained by masked officers is contrary to that tradition…Revoking her visa because of her political viewpoint is not how America works,” said Jake Auchinloss, a former Marine and Democrat Congressman.
Auchinloss said Ozturk has no reported record of violence or harassment, and while she did co-write an op-ed about Israel, with which he disagreed, he simply wrote an opposing view because “that’s how America works.”
According to local reports, Ozturk was a victim of an anonymous group called Canary Mission, which publishes profiles of students and teachers at US universities whom it accuses of promoting hatred against the USA, Israel, and Jews. Many pro-Israel activists celebrated Ozturk’s arrest, one describing her as “foreign agitator who organized pro-Hamas activity,” and exulting, “Pack your bags, Rumeysa. You’re going HOME.”
