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#kidnapping

13 posts12 participants0 posts today
Continued thread

At the risk of stating the obvious, it would be nice if media minions on my TV would spend any time at all analyzing Trump's fascist ICE kidnapping spree as part of a larger plan, with an eye on what the regime is actually trying to accomplish here. Maybe American media outlets are spooked by living in a country where it's increasingly illegal to admit racism exists, but it's not like it's impossible to do the legwork; even for corporate media. Take for example this piece in the international edition of The Guardian, pointing out that it's almost certainly not an accident all of DHS's targets for fascist ideological policing and deportation are people of color, even though a majority of the folks participating in campus anti-genocide protests the regime is claiming represent a threat to our national security, were white folks born in America.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m

‘A warning for students of color’: Ice agents are targeting certain protesters, say experts

"Now, at least five students and academics of color at US universities have been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), as a part of the Trump administration’s ongoing push to punish noncitizens over their support of Palestine.

“What we’re seeing is the use of immigration law to go after visa holders, permanent lawful residents, [over] their speech,” said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). “He’s trying to suppress political speech that goes against what the administration wants.”

Despite white students, professors and academics also being heavily involved in pro-Palestine protests, people of color have disproportionately faced sudden arrests and threats of deportation or had their visas revoked.

“We’re just seeing the focus on very specific people,” said Sisay, referring to academics of color. “I think it really is to try to create a wedge in solidarity, the multiracial, multiethnic solidarity that’s been created in support of Palestinian human rights.” Ice’s actions, she said, have “set a warning for students of color at these universities who rely on scholarships and educational support to improve their lives or better the situations for their family.”

So look, maybe you don't need to be a genius to figure out why an openly white nationalist, Islamophobic, and deeply xenophobic Trump administration is starting its attempts to criminalize protest and dissent, with non-white academics, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslim. These guys are fucking nazis, and that's the kinda shit nazis do; although I'll be honest with you, the next time I see a corporate media outlet explain the actions of the Pork Reich by directly saying "well they're fascists, obviously" it'll probably be the first.

The truth however, is that Stephen Miller, who is definitely running Trump's immigration policies and his fascist war to crush dissent, is the kinda crudely cunning fascist who absolutely "uses the whole cow." Sure the regime is stacked to the brim with raving white nationalists, but they're also clearly working to break the solidarity of the anti-genocide protest movement, while simultaneously targeting people Americans have already been taught to hate in order to shift the Overton Window far enough towards fascism to allow them to start black bagging and imprisoning *anyone* of *any* immigration status, who opposes the regime. It is irresponsible to simply repeat regime propaganda to justify illegally disappearing protestors, without helping your audience put these events in a larger context that would explain why it's important for all of us to oppose Trump's fascist repression of people many Americans don't care about and have been taught to dislike, if they don't want the regime's next assault on civil rights to strike closer to home.

The Guardian · ‘A warning for students of color’: Ice agents are targeting certain protesters, say expertsBy Gloria Oladipo
#Fascism#ICE#DHS
Continued thread

The Trump regime has expanded its blatantly unconstitutional college campus kidnapping spree beyond the Ivies; this time ICE snatched University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi at his off campus home at 5AM on Tuesday. The DHS has refused to provide clarification for why Doroudi, a mechanical engineering student from Iran who is legally studying in the United States, was detained; beyond some vague nonsense about "national security."

archive.is/m42G7

ICE detains University of Alabama doctoral student as government's college crackdown continues

"David Rozas, an attorney representing Doroudi, said in a statement Saturday that they are "confused" about why Doroudi was detained. Doroudi has maintained lawful status while studying at the university, Rozas said.

"We have not been made aware of any allegations of misconduct against my client," Rozas said. "We do not believe he is suspected to have committed any crimes nor participated in any political activities whatsoever."

He said Doroudi has a pending EB-2 application, a pathway to a green card for immigrants who hold an advanced degree or have "exceptional ability."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an emailed statement: "ICE HSI made this arrest in accordance with the State Department’s revocation of Doroudi’s student visa. This individual posed significant national security concerns."

Given the DHS's refusal to provide adequate details, many mainstream news outlets are reporting that it's unclear if this particular visa revocation and ICE kidnapping is part of Trump's larger fascist war on college campus protestors and people who write op-eds criticizing Israel's genocide in Gaza. Given the methods the regime used to target Doroudi and fact that ICE has already shipped him to the notorious detention center in Louisiana that it shipped most of the other students to however, I think that position is a little too credulous. At a minimum, sources at the University of Alabama have indicated that the community there regards this as part of Trump's racist repression of international students.

Moira Donegan: The US government is effectively #kidnapping people for opposing #genocide Rumeysa Ozturk, a visa holder, was snatched off the streets by Ice agents and sent to a detention center 1,000 miles away for opposing war crimes in #Gaza

#RumeysaOzturk #marcorubio #ICE
theguardian.com/commentisfree/

The Guardian · The US government is effectively kidnapping people for opposing genocideBy Moira Donegan

Hip-Hop Star Macklemore on New Film "The Encampments" & Why He Opposes Israel's War on Gaza

youtube.com/watch?v=Py91uBeEec

"We are in urgent, dire times that require us as human beings coming together and fighting against fascism, fighting against genocide, and the only way to do that is by opening up the heart and realizing that collective liberation is the only solution," Macklemore says.

Continued thread

Yesterday, chilling video emerged online of ICE pigs kidnapping University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was snatched off a Somerville, Massachusetts street while on her way to meet friends for iftar, as part of her observance of Ramadan. Although details are still emerging, it appears that like virtually every other international student targeted by Trump's immigration Gestapo, Ozturk, "a doctoral candidate in the university’s [Tufts] Child Study and Human Development department and formerly attended Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar," isn't being accused of a crime, but rather had her visa revoked for constitutionally-protected speech criticizing Israel's genocide in Gaza; in this case, an op-ed she wrote in Tufts Daily.

1) truthout.org/articles/tufts-st

Tufts Student Activist Rumeysa Ozturk Abducted by ICE on Her Way to Iftar

"Officials initially did not specify where Ozturk had been taken, and Khanbabai was unable to reach her. Later on Wednesday, Khanbabai said in a motion that she was informed by a senator’s office that the student was transferred to Louisiana. DHS agents also sent Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil to Louisiana, where he is being held in an immigration jail notorious for its abuses.

The transfer is despite the fact that a judge approved a petition barring Ozturk from being removed from Massachusetts without advance notice filed by Khanbabai on Tuesday. The Trump administration has been openly flouting court orders when it comes to its anti-immigrant onslaught; earlier this month, for instance, immigration officials deported Brown University assistant professor and doctor Rasha Alawieh to Lebanon, despite a judge having ordered the visa holder not to be removed.

Ozturk’s abduction comes just days after she was doxxed by Zionist vigilante group Canary Mission, advocates for Palestinian rights said. The group cited her activism against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including an op-ed published in Tufts Daily last year demanding that university leadership divest from Israel and condemn its slaughter of Palestinians."

Look folks, I don't know who needs to be told that surrounding and abducting an academic legally studying in the United States for writing an op-ed calling on Tufts to divest from Israel and condemn the genocide in Gaza, is textbook fascism, but it is. This is the kinda shit our government uses as justification for international sanctions and military intervention in non-democratic countries that happen to have large oil and gas reserves. Furthermore, as someone who has a number of close friends and colleagues who've been doxed by the assclowns at Canary Mission for nothing more than attending peaceful anti-genocide protests, I can't tell you how profoundly disturbing it is to even consider the possibility that the Trump regime is using their woefully baseless and politicized records to identify targets for deportation in America. This is fascist ideological policing, designed to intimidate Ozturk and other academics or students who would speak out; absolutely nothing about this is legal, or a legitimate attempt to protect public safety. We're literally snatching up scholars off the street for criticizing the government, Israel, a genocide, and apparently even the response of American universities to anti-genocide protests.

This McCarthy-esque bullshit isn't a warning sign of creeping fascism; this is Trump's all American fascist police state acting in broad daylight, with presumed impunity, to punish political speech and silence dissent. And while this represents an escalation of Trump's fascist war on student protestors, the situation is unfortunately all too familiar to Muslim American observers living in the United States under the still active logic of War on Terror policing.

archive.is/IlRY6

The New Video of Federal Agents Ambushing a Student and Disappearing With Her Should Chill You to Your Core

"As a Muslim American, in moments like these, it feels like there isn’t much else left to say. The Trump administration is trying to normalize a disquieting new chapter of something that’s happened now for nearly three decades. In that time, we’ve watched our communities surveilled, detained, blacklisted, and interrogated under the guise of national security. After 9/11, hundreds of Muslim immigrants were swept up and held without charge—some in solitary confinement for months. The NYPD mapped our neighborhoods, infiltrated our mosques, spied on our student groups at places like Yale, Rutgers, and the University of Pennsylvania. (I once discovered it kept a file on me.) None of it produced a single terrorism lead. These stories don’t just vanish when the news cycle goes on. They remain with us, in a country where many of us were born but will always be viewed with suspicion. The message has been clear: The government will find a reason to come for us."

Truthout · Tufts Student Activist Rumeysa Ozturk Abducted by ICE on Her Way to IftarOzturk’s location after being abducted by ICE agents is currently unknown.
#Fascism#Trump#ICE

The #kidnapping of Runeysa Ozturk by U.S. secret police in Massachusetts.

🔥Disturbing on so many levels.

College students in America shouldn’t fear being taken off the street by plainclothes, masked law enforcement (?) for reasons unknown.

To avoid further chilling speech, the feds, at minimum, have to be palms up about the allegations against her.

bsky.app/profile/1amorey.bsky.

Bluesky Social · Alex Morey (@1amorey.bsky.social)Disturbing on so many levels. College students in America shouldn’t fear being taken off the street by plainclothes, masked law enforcement (?) for reasons unknown. To avoid further chilling speech, the feds, at minimum, have to be palms up about the allegations against her. [contains quote post or other embedded content]