1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

I am writing today in outrage about the abuses perpetrated on our LEGAL immigrants and residents from other countries. Under Donald Trump's mass deportation initiatives, ICE ( presumably, because they wore no identifying uniforms) is arrested Rumeysa Ozturk in Somerville on March 25, 2025. Ms.Ozturk is an F-1 visa holder and a graduate student at Tufts University. Plainclothes officers restrained and arrested her on the street near her apartment and did not identify themselves as federal officers until after she was already Zip tied. They put their hands on and bound a woman alone on the street! Ms. Ozturk has committed no crime, except perhaps expressing pro-Palestinian sentiment. In her case, she wrote an op-ed piece in the school newspaper last year, criticizing the university's response to pro Palestinian protests on campus. She is just one of the growing number of international students targeted by the Trump administration for exercising free speech. I am writing about her because she was a member of the MA community. President Trump promised to deport immigrants who are criminals and people who were here illegally. But this administration is now violating the rights of legal residents, green card and visa holders who have done nothing wrong. In addition, many of these people are unable to communicate with loved ones or lawyers for days. Then there are the supposed gang members sent to CICOT, some only arrested because of tattoos. These are human rights violations. We need legislation that limits where and how ICE may operate, to clarify that visa holders have constitutional rights, including the right to free speech, and to protect the human rights of all arrested and deportees.