MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. has revoked hundreds of visas as part of a crackdown on student activists who opposed Israel's war in Gaza.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Outside Boston this week, about 2,000 people took to the streets to call on the government to free Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: When immigrants are under attack, what do we do?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Stand up. Fight back.
MARTÍNEZ: Immigration agents in plain clothes and face masks arrested Ozturk off the street and plan to deport her. She is the latest foreign-born student taken into custody as the Trump administration goes after university protesters.
MARTIN: NPR's Adrian Florido has been tracking these developments, and he's with us now. Good morning, Adrian.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So, Adrian, tell us more about Rumeysa Ozturk and what happened to her.
FLORIDO: Well, I'll start with what happened. It was Tuesday. A security camera captured it. Ozturk is about to cross the street on her way to dinner to break the Ramadan fast with friends. Six agents surround her, and one grabs her arm.
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RUMEYSA OZTURK: OK. (Screaming) Just let me go. OK. OK.
FLORIDO: Ozturk screams, visibly terrified as agents handcuff her and lead her to an unmarked car. She is Turkish and a Ph.D. student at Tufts on a student visa. She's been involved in pro-Palestinian activism. Last year, she published an op-ed criticizing her school's leaders for not condemning the war in Gaza or cutting economic ties with Israel.
MARTIN: OK, so here's the critical question. Do we know if that op-ed is why immigration agents arrested her?
FLORIDO: Not precisely, but the Department of Homeland Security said that Ozturk has, quote, "engaged in activities in support of Hamas." DHS has offered no evidence of this. Her lawyer calls those allegations baseless. She says Ozturk is a gifted student and Fulbright scholar studying child development. But last night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he personally revoked her visa after assessing her activities.
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MARCO RUBIO: The activities presented to me meet the standard of what I've just described to you of people that are supportive of movements that run counter to the foreign policy of the United States. If necessary and a court compels us, we'll provide that information. But ultimately, it's a visa. Judges don't issue student visas. There is no right to a student visa.
FLORIDO: Ozturk, after her arrest, was quickly flown to a detention center in Louisiana, Michel. And her lawyer is fighting to free her.
MARTIN: And, of course, I think many people may remember that Mahmoud Khalil was arrested at Columbia University three weeks ago on similar accusations...
FLORIDO: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...After the secretary of state decided to revoke his green card. Now, let me remind here that he is a legal permanent resident, not a student visa holder, and he's married to an American citizen. Other students and scholars have also been pursued or arrested. So how wide is this dragnet?
FLORIDO: Well, yesterday, Rubio said that he has revoked hundreds of visas, many of them student visas, making those people immediately deportable. And here he is again.
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RUBIO: We are not going to be importing activists into the United States. They're here to study. They're here to go to class. They're not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine the - our universities. I think it's lunacy to continue to allow that.
FLORIDO: Rubio is delivering on President Trump's promise, Michel, to deport noncitizens whose activism he claims supports Hamas terrorism and is antisemitic. Trump has taken special aim at universities, saying they're infested with radicalism. He's demanded that schools crack down on protests and is pressuring them with funding cuts or threats of funding cuts. Student activists say this is all about muzzling dissent and free speech and that these deportation arrests are about spreading terror and punishing students for their political beliefs. And they say that the arrests are unconstitutional, and lawyers are fighting them.
MARTIN: And what might be next for these students who have been targeted?
FLORIDO: Well, like I said, their lawyers are fighting in federal courts and immigration courts to prevent their deportations. Some are making constitutional arguments, leaning on the First Amendment right to free speech. The government is also aggressively defending its authority, though, to revoke the legal status of these students and to expel them.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Adrian Florido. Adrian, thank you.
FLORIDO: Thanks, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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