Today the Boston Globe published my mini-essay as a letter:
LETTERS
Last Tuesday it was Rumeysa Ozturk.
Who will it be next?
Updated
March 31, 2025, 2:30 a.m.
A collection of flowers
and messages was on display on March 28 at the Mason Street site in Somerville
where Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey, was
arrested.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
Trump administration’s tactic: Divide
and oppress
Friday’s
welcome editorial, “The chilling arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, and the damage done,” makes
only a brief mention of the most critical point: The federal government’s
targeting of people for their political views, whether they are citizens or
not, is a violation of freedom of speech and due process of law.
The
First Amendment protecting freedom of speech and the right of assembly does not
state that it applies only to citizens. It also protects “the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances.” The Fifth Amendment establishing due process of law applies to any
“person.” The 14th Amendment contains clauses pertaining to citizens but
establishes due process of law and equal protection of the laws for “any
person.”
These
elements of the Constitution project a humane vision of democracy.
We
lose this vision when we allow the federal administration to divide us into
separate categories of citizens and noncitizens. Rumeysa Ozturk, the
Tufts graduate student who was swept off a Somerville street by masked
plainclothes agents and then detained out of state, was a documented legal
resident until her legal status was suddenly revoked without legal process. Now
every noncitizen is at risk of having their legal status suddenly revoked. Once
that is allowed, citizens will be next. Our silence is acceptance.
John
L. Hodge
Jamaica
Plain
Other letters that followed mine on this topic are also well worth reading.
