Earlier this week, Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was detained without warning on the streets by immigration authorities.[1] After her arrest, she was briskly moved to a detention center in Louisiana, far from her legal representation and support systems. No formal charges were filed against her other than the government having revoked her green card without notice or cause. Her case is similar to the arrest of an international Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “The Trump administration has been on a campaign to arrest and deport international students who participated in campus protests.”[2] Both Ozturk and Khalil, foreign students legally living and studying in the United States on visas, are accused of participating in the protest of human rights violations against Palestinians in Gaza by Israel’s war against Hamas. Ideological persuasions and partisan politics aside, an apparent strategy of intimidation is emerging, and it should concern us all.
An apparent strategy of intimidation is emerging, and it should concern us all.
Colleges and universities, both public and private, are spaces where ideas are shared, skills for life are developed, and engagement with society at the highest levels is practiced. They have always been institutions of progress and consternation. Today, they are under the critical eye of the public and those who have the power to silence debates and the ideals of others with force. They are a microcosm of a wider movement to restrict the civil liberties of Americans in an era of anxiety over extremist ideas and bad actors.[3]
Our collective future is contingent on actionable values that inspire hope and change for our shared humanity. From Gaza to universities in America and around the world, we have a responsibility to ourselves and our neighbors near and far to uphold our inalienable rights. While our ideals are as diverse as our cultural backgrounds and families of origin, we are interconnected and made of the same material that created the universe. We are not greater or lesser—we are equal in substance and significance.
Intimidation and silencing in the name of national security is the work of authoritarian leaders and governments. Their anxiety is provoked by whatever threatens their unilateral rule and presumptive superiority over others. For them, there is nothing more frightening than when people speak up, protest, defend causes, or hold them accountable for anything that does not align with their purist and privileged version of the world they create for themselves. If only they could see their belonging was never in jeopardy, just their hunger for power.
Our collective future is contingent on actionable values that inspire hope and change for our shared humanity.
The pathway to a better tomorrow is valuing openness to collaboration, diversity, and debate. When people are engaged in cross-cultural, ethnic, gender, and intergenerational conversations, stories are heard, ideas are shared, and solutions are generated. Progress—another value of hope and change—does not occur overnight or through violence. It’s as subtle as a flowing stream but as powerful as the forces that forged its pathway through soil and rock. Progress is about the process of creating positive change. It looks ahead to the future, identifying what is possible while simultaneously solving today’s problems to foster human flourishing.
Some of our best colleges, universities, churches, public forums, and non-profit organizations embody these values and uphold the promise of hope and continual change for a better tomorrow. They will continue to do so as long as we act to protect them, even at a cost.
The ideals of hope and change are intrinsic to our very being. Fear and oppression will silence some, but our light cannot be extinguished even when our soul is weary. Consider the words of a humble, non-violent activist from the first century in these troubled times: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”[4] Let us be the people of courage and hope the world needs today.
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In Gratitude,
Matt
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/us/politics/tufts-ice-crackdown.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
[3] https://www.vox.com/policy/406067/mahmoud-khalil-detention-pro-palestinian-arrests-deportations
[4] Matthew 10:28, New International Version.
Matt Till 