• The arrest of thousands of university students at dozens of American universities protesting against the genocide in Gaza is contrary to the fundamental principles of the rule of law and respect for human rights required in a democracy

The author is a Canada-based lawyer with 25 years of legal experience.

ISTANBUL

The recent unlawful arrests, arbitrary detentions, and illegal deportations of university students across the United States should prompt those who still consider it a bastion of human rights and democracy to reconsider. The clandestine arrest, cruel and unusual detention and political-based persecutory revocation of student authorization for Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish-born Tufts University doctoral student, on Mar. 26, 2025, exposes the myth.

Ms. Ozturk is a doctoral student in Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University, studying on a Fulbright scholarship. She co-authored an opinion piece published in her university student paper about the campaign to divest from companies with ties to Israel. As she was leaving her residence to go for Iftar dinner three days ago, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, wearing masks and black plainclothes, suddenly pounced on her, forcefully confiscated her cell phone, handcuffed her, and abducted her in a van. In complete disregard of the rule of law, Ozturk was stealthily removed from the state of Massachusetts and whisked away to a detention center in Louisiana, contrary to a federal court order prohibiting her removal. No charges have been laid against Ozturk and nothing justifies the gross mistreatment and abuse of basic due process and human rights that she has suffered. Even the attempt by the US Department of Homeland Security to legitimize ICE’s lawlessness by vaguely claiming that Ozturk engaged in "activities supporting Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans” is incongruous with the rule of law. Not only is there no charge, but there is no evidence of the above to justify terminating her student visa.

Furthermore, it is loosely based on an autocratic presidential edict that seeks to politically repress and persecute. In Jan. 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing the removal of foreign students participating in protests against, and criticism of, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, threatening to defund universities for failing to do so. The threat to defund universities and prosecute students is a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which bars the US government from using threats to defund in order to coerce censorship and silence protest. Moreover, rule by executive decree is not a function of democracy but rather autocracy. Such governance trickles down to institutional breaches of civil rights and liberties, such as freedom of thought, expression, assembly and association, and violations of human rights such as arbitrary arrests, detentions, and cruel and unusual punishment by the state. As a result of the executive order attacking fundamental constitutional and human rights, universities across the US have implemented restrictive speech codes and policies prohibiting protests in a blatant attack on free speech.

Many students have been deported

Students across America now face censorship of speech and events, face ludicrous allegations and suffer severe sanctions without due process for engaging in protests that are typical of student activism. Ozturk is just one name on an alarmingly long list of students who speak up for Palestinian human rights, including the high-profile cases of Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, University of Alabama student Alireza Douroudi, Columbia student Yunseo Chung, Georgetown University fellow Badar Khan Suri, Cornell University doctoral candidate Momodou Taal, and Columbia University student Ranjani Srinivasan who are facing deportation after revocation of student visas. These cases represent only the tip of the iceberg. Many more students in America who are peacefully demanding universities to divest from weapons manufacturers and corporate partners associated with the state of Israel are also persecuted but are well within their rights to protest. Their request is supported by countless credible and authoritative human rights reports documenting genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Israel, as well as decisions by top United Nations courts.

Arguably, the arrest of thousands of university students at dozens of American universities protesting against the genocide in Gaza is contrary to the fundamental principles of the rule of law and respect for human rights required in a democracy. Protection of political dissent from punishment by the state is a core function of the First Amendment in the US Constitution. It is a hallmark of democracy and human rights for students to engage in free expression on domestic and international social and political issues whether in student newspapers, campus demonstrations or encampments. Indeed, it was largely through such actions in the 1970s that the Vietnam War was brought to a halt, and in the 1980s that universities divested from companies, which ultimately toppled apartheid South Africa. US university campuses, once vibrant places for intellectual inquiry, controversial debates, and resistance to unjust government policies, have now become places of censorship, silence, and fear. The arrest of Ozturk bears more resemblance to the actions of Gestapo thugs than to the behavior expected from the so-called "land of the free." But it is not the first time in America: it is reminiscent of the Red Scare in 1917-1920 and McCarthyism in the late 1940s and through the 1950s, where widespread political repression and persecution took place. Those who continue to believe in the myth of American superiority in human rights and democracy are fooling themselves, just like the subjects who praised the naked emperor in the famous fairy tale "The Emperor’s New Clothes." The illusion exists only in their imagination and not in reality.

*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu's editorial policy.