This student was ambushed and arrested... for the crime of being one of several authors of an opinion essay published last March in the Tufts student newspaper. The essay criticized university leaders for their response to demands that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest itself from companies with ties to Israel.
Her crime is expressing an opinion. I am no Hamas supporter, but writing an opinion essay supporting Hamas seems like it would be allowed by the 1st amendment, regardless of the immigration status of the opinion writer.
In a statement to ABC News, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: "Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student, granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security."
Also, anything of this sort should go through the legal system first. She’s not Bin Laden, there’s no movie-plot bomb with a countdown timer, they should be expected to file charges and allow her to confront the evidence rather than abducting her with a bunch of masked officers who aren’t even in uniform.
As I understand it they point to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 for why it doesn't need to go through the courts and the Secretary of State has the authority to sign off on it unilateraly.
> To prove that an LPR is deportable, the government must convene a “removal hearing” before an immigration judge. At that hearing, government attorneys must prove deportability by “clear and convincing” evidence. A number of provisions define the procedures for conducting removal hearings with some specificity. Under those rules, the government must afford LPRs (as well as others in removal proceedings) notice of the charges against them, a right to confront the evidence against them and present their own evidence in response, and a lawyer if they can afford one.
…
> While 237(a)(4)(C) itself makes the Secretary of State’s determination central to the question of deportability, no provision of immigration law grants the President, the Secretary of State, or anyone else unilateral authority to “revoke” LPRs of their status—by Executive Order or otherwise. They must follow the procedures described above.
The increasing use of masked officers is the scary part. I don’t see the need for it. I’m sure the antagonist will say, “it’s for the officers safety; to prevent retribution, etc”. My answer to that is simply that there’s no retribution if you’re not doing something wrong.
Denying due process for these sorts of incidents is a hallmark of the current administration. Central to it is vilification of immigrants and false association with terrorists.
You can't mass enforce government actions on people on the scale the US wants to (millions of immigrants) via a legal system spread out around the country. You have to streamline the process. For efficiency you have to concentrate the groups in one area and setup streamlined processes at the place you choose to concentrate everyone (in this case everyone you don't want in the country). Luckily we have Elon's people refining their streamlining skills within the government before turning their gaze onto efficiency at these concentration points.
> You can't mass enforce government actions on people on the scale the US wants to (millions of immigrants) via a legal system
Then you don't do it. I really wish the vast majority of the country realized that a lack of due process for anyone is the same as a lack of due process for everyone.
Precedent was set long ago that saving money is more important than Constitutional rights in the US. The Trial Tax has long been imposed and sentences greatly extended on Americans' who dared exercise their constitutional rights. And no one cared.
I'm concerned that people will read this and NotSee your point.
An Frankly, that's par for the course here.
/s
I think folks in the US would be safer if they concentrated on the fact that:
"If they can remove due process from anyone, they can do it to you, too".
After all, once you're renditioned to a 3rd country with no legal status, what exactly are you going to do to get out of that situation? Hoping that you look white enough and never express a "bad" opinion doesn't seem all that safe to me.
Typically pro-Palestinian student activists in the US go to lengths to not support Hamas and generally have multiple statements to that end.
To date, to the best of my searching, the DHS claims have not been backed up.
In a statement to the Guardian, a DHS spokesperson said on Wednesday that Ozturk was “granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa” and, without supplying any proof, accused her of supporting Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza and led the attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, prompting a massive military response from Israel.
> To date, to the best of my searching, the DHS claims have not been backed up.
The entire reason for adopting a system with no procedural safeguards is so that claims don't have to be backed up by anything, just as in the case of the completely bogus invocation of the Alien Enemies Act (the pro-Palestine campus activist deportations use a different pretext for denying any process, but the net effect is the same.)
I see some very "tolerant" people are downvoting. You support the girl's right to support Hamas, but don't even want to hear from people who think differently.
UPDATE: Her essay didn't even support Hamas, here's the essay: https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj
People are rightfully skeptical of the claims made by DHS and ICE. I suspect you've received downvotes for taking their statements at face value without seeking supporting evidence.
Not sure why we'd believe whatever this administration accuses someone of. They have very little connection with truth and a lot of connection with unconstitutional and fascist behaviors. They have not earned trust or good faith.
They're testing the waters with green card holders now, but it's certain they'll eventually try this with citizens if they can get away with this (see both Project 2025 and their ongoing anti-trans policies).
The op-ed criticizes Tufts University’s dismissal of three resolutions passed by the Tufts Community Union Senate, which demand the university recognize alleged genocide in Palestine, divest from companies tied to Israel, and disclose its investments.
I am interested in the mechanistic approach which would drive the interventions by the feds.
* are people suggesting targets? who would that be? is this organized online somewhere?
* is there a 'u-tip' number people can dial anonymously?
* is this based on some metric over feed analysis, and smart tools so there's a threshold test in software and a priority list which is run as a join over immigration status?
I'm not asking people to break OPSEC, this is in the spirit of "how exactly did Hollerith cards help the bad people do the information processing" of past times.
Stephen Miller is credited with shaping Trump's immigration policies and known for his hardline stance on immigration. I suspect he has staff dedicated to identifying people to target.
I've read at least one other article a week or two ago that I'm sure mentioned a different group, but can't recall it well enough, could well have been Betar US as well.
apparently not! all those americans who insisted they needed their guns to repel government tyranny have gone oddly silent now the government is going all 1933.
I see these arrests and removals of international students as part of a plot by the Trump administration to attack the elite universities, and the other institutions that they see as opposing them (law firms, government agencies, the media, etc). Universities depend on international students and federal grants. Scare away the foreign students and threaten the grant funding, and the universities will bend to the administration's will.
This is not about antisemitism. If the Gaza war had not happened, they would have found another excuse (trans issues for instance). What they are after is power.
> I see these arrests and removals of international students as part of a plot by the Trump administration to attack the elite universities
This is obviously the case; it's not even the leading edge that hints that further attacks might come; the attacks on the institutions directly started at around the same time as the immigration actions: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/universities...
> This is not about antisemitism.
No, its about fascist corporatism and the drive to have all institutions, whether notionally "public" or "private", in society aligned with and directed by the will of the leader.
> If the Gaza war had not happened, they would have found another excuse (trans issues for instance).
Even with the Gaza pretexts being used for part of the campaign to bring universities in line, trans issues are also being used in that campaign; its not either/or.
To those flagging all these articles because of "not relevant" or "repetitive", please consider how these are affecting thousands or ten of thousands of real humans in the US, most of them are in tech. They are absolutely relevant to many people. Maybe you believe these actions are far removed from you and thus irrelevant, but have some empathy to those affected and don't try to close your eyes at least?
Also, these are as "repetitive" as OAI releasing GPT x.x. Escalation of the same event, but everytime there is something new and worthy of discussion being pushed.
So if you don't like these news, ignore them. But don't use "HN rules" as the excuse.
I live in a different country than where I am from. I’m no longer allowed to have an opinion on how I wish the world should be, out of fear I might anger the wrong assholes in power?
This has nothing to do with intelligence. It has something to do with backbone.
What Israel is doing in Gaza is wrong and Netanyahu should be tried for his crimes. Should I be deported now?
How about this: US Citizens have the right to expect that the government will respect everybody's rights to free speech and due process in their country, as supposedly guaranteed by the people they employ having sworn allegiance to their Constitution, which they are now treating like toilet paper?
it is politics of the highest order (in the original sense affairs of the city(zenry))
that said asking why this has been flagged is probably futile, people flag things they don't want to see, don't want to interact with it, so it's unlikely to get a representative cross-section of them to explain "why?"
Because HN has become much like X, with an aggressive pro Trump element abusing the system.
People claim it's because its due to "irrelevant politics" but HN is probably 70% off topic subjects, tangentially connected to tech, etc. But no one is flagging these other off topic posts.
I can also see it in any comment I make which doesn't conform to right wing dogma getting voted up in the EU time zone, then getting voted down in the US timezone.
>Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
58 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 119 ms ] threadIn a statement to ABC News, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: "Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student, granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security."
https://abcnews.go.com/US/tufts-phd-student-visa-arrested-im...
UPDATE: Her essay didn't even support Hamas, here's the essay: https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj
https://www.justsecurity.org/109012/legal-issues-deportation...
> To prove that an LPR is deportable, the government must convene a “removal hearing” before an immigration judge. At that hearing, government attorneys must prove deportability by “clear and convincing” evidence. A number of provisions define the procedures for conducting removal hearings with some specificity. Under those rules, the government must afford LPRs (as well as others in removal proceedings) notice of the charges against them, a right to confront the evidence against them and present their own evidence in response, and a lawyer if they can afford one.
…
> While 237(a)(4)(C) itself makes the Secretary of State’s determination central to the question of deportability, no provision of immigration law grants the President, the Secretary of State, or anyone else unilateral authority to “revoke” LPRs of their status—by Executive Order or otherwise. They must follow the procedures described above.
Then you don't do it. I really wish the vast majority of the country realized that a lack of due process for anyone is the same as a lack of due process for everyone.
https://www.nacdl.org/Media/TrialPenaltyScourgeofAmericanCri...
An Frankly, that's par for the course here.
/s
I think folks in the US would be safer if they concentrated on the fact that:
"If they can remove due process from anyone, they can do it to you, too".
After all, once you're renditioned to a 3rd country with no legal status, what exactly are you going to do to get out of that situation? Hoping that you look white enough and never express a "bad" opinion doesn't seem all that safe to me.
To date, to the best of my searching, the DHS claims have not been backed up.
~ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/ice-agents-d..."Typically" does not mean "always".
That's an understandable mistake on your part if english is your second or third language.
The entire reason for adopting a system with no procedural safeguards is so that claims don't have to be backed up by anything, just as in the case of the completely bogus invocation of the Alien Enemies Act (the pro-Palestine campus activist deportations use a different pretext for denying any process, but the net effect is the same.)
They're testing the waters with green card holders now, but it's certain they'll eventually try this with citizens if they can get away with this (see both Project 2025 and their ongoing anti-trans policies).
See: https://x.com/StephenM/status/1712094935820780029?lang=en
https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj
The op-ed criticizes Tufts University’s dismissal of three resolutions passed by the Tufts Community Union Senate, which demand the university recognize alleged genocide in Palestine, divest from companies tied to Israel, and disclose its investments.
No support for Hamas that I can see.
* are people suggesting targets? who would that be? is this organized online somewhere?
* is there a 'u-tip' number people can dial anonymously?
* is this based on some metric over feed analysis, and smart tools so there's a threshold test in software and a priority list which is run as a join over immigration status?
I'm not asking people to break OPSEC, this is in the spirit of "how exactly did Hollerith cards help the bad people do the information processing" of past times.
Betar US: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/25/what-is-betar-us-th...
I've read at least one other article a week or two ago that I'm sure mentioned a different group, but can't recall it well enough, could well have been Betar US as well.
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43485577
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43487465
I second this.
This is not about antisemitism. If the Gaza war had not happened, they would have found another excuse (trans issues for instance). What they are after is power.
This is obviously the case; it's not even the leading edge that hints that further attacks might come; the attacks on the institutions directly started at around the same time as the immigration actions: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/universities...
> This is not about antisemitism.
No, its about fascist corporatism and the drive to have all institutions, whether notionally "public" or "private", in society aligned with and directed by the will of the leader.
> If the Gaza war had not happened, they would have found another excuse (trans issues for instance).
Even with the Gaza pretexts being used for part of the campaign to bring universities in line, trans issues are also being used in that campaign; its not either/or.
Also, these are as "repetitive" as OAI releasing GPT x.x. Escalation of the same event, but everytime there is something new and worthy of discussion being pushed.
So if you don't like these news, ignore them. But don't use "HN rules" as the excuse.
If more people had empathy the collection of sociopaths currently in charge wouldn't be.
I live in a different country than where I am from. I’m no longer allowed to have an opinion on how I wish the world should be, out of fear I might anger the wrong assholes in power?
This has nothing to do with intelligence. It has something to do with backbone.
What Israel is doing in Gaza is wrong and Netanyahu should be tried for his crimes. Should I be deported now?
If kidnapping by masked thugs is acceptable treatment in your mind for guests, then I am never setting foot anywhere near you.
> Supposedly intelligent university students who have drifted away so far from reality that they don't see that. It's crazy
Yes, there has been some serious drifting away from reality here.
that said asking why this has been flagged is probably futile, people flag things they don't want to see, don't want to interact with it, so it's unlikely to get a representative cross-section of them to explain "why?"
People claim it's because its due to "irrelevant politics" but HN is probably 70% off topic subjects, tangentially connected to tech, etc. But no one is flagging these other off topic posts.
I can also see it in any comment I make which doesn't conform to right wing dogma getting voted up in the EU time zone, then getting voted down in the US timezone.
This was covered extensively in mainstream media.