Protests continued in Cambridge and Somerville on Thursday over the abduction of Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk from a Somerville street, joining a chaotic mix of other Trump-era issues, while the U.S. secretary of state revealed that Ozturk was one of at least 300 international students caught up in an immigration crackdown despite visiting the country legally.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we are not going to give you a visa,” Marco Rubio told reporters, offering no evidence of criminal activity.
Rubio confirmed that the visa given to Ozturk to visit from Turkey had been revoked, as Tufts president Sunil Kumar said in a Tuesday email to the school community.
It also became known from court documents that on Wednesday, as Ozturk’s lawyer and a representative of the Turkish consulate searched for the missing student and a judge ordered the government to not to take Ozturk out of state, the 30-year-old grad student was already out of state on her way to a facility in Basile, Louisiana. The timing made the judge’s order irrelevant.
Ozturk takes at least two medications for asthma and “was detained without access to these medications,” attorney Mahsa Khanbabai said in court filings, warning that “high-stress situations can trigger asthma attacks.” The court documents show Ozturk and Khanbabai spoke by phone at around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday.
In every known case of the revocations Rubio referred to, no crime has been noted, only use of First Amendment free-speech rights that extend to visitors to the United States as well as citizens. Ozturk was one of four writers of a letter posted in the spring of 2024 urging Tufts to adopt a resolution against violence in the Middle East.
“Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio told reporters during his trip to Guyana.
Ozturk’s case drew a protest Wednesday in Somerville of as many as 3,000 people. By Thursday, when the disappearing of Ozturk made part of two protests, things already felt more fractured.
At an event organized by the group Refuse Fascism, meeting at 4 p.m. in front of the Smith Campus Center in Harvard Square, attendees held signs and spoke through bullhorns to show their opposition to the crackdown on international students. The rally included students, veterans, activists and Cambridge and Somerville community members.
Protesters held banners with the words “free Mahmoud Kahlil now!” – a Columbia graduate student and Palestinian activist detained by federal agents this month – and “free Rumeysa Ozturk now!” While some speakers reflected on the similarities between the current disappearance of students and Nazi Germany’s disappearance of intellectuals before and during World War II, other protesters decided to shift the theme toward issues such as transgender rights and America’s involvement with Israel’s bombing campaign in Palestine. Two protesters responded with the chant, “stay on topic!”
As the small crowd thickened, so did tension between protesters – all holding signs and intending to spread a message about local dissent to Trump administration policies. One attendee wearing Israeli flags challenged the people holding a sign that distinguished antisemitism from anti-Zionism.
Nearly all of the protesters standing in front of the Harvard building wore sunglasses, hats and masks, obscuring their faces from photographs and videos. While some held only signs, others wore beanies saying “refuse fascism,” also a popular chant at the rally.
Helicopters circled the square and passing car honking added to the din. As more protesters gathered with signs, organizers such as George Bryant handed out flyers to come to Washington, D.C., or downtown Boston at 11 a.m. April 5 for another protest: “We Demand: The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go!”
A larger Thursday protest took place at 6 p.m. outside Somerville City Hall organized by Somerville for Palestine. It too was not about Ozturk, though her plight was added to the rally’s cause: support of a question going on the ballot in November that “advises Somerville leaders to stop current and future business with companies that engage in business that sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide and illegal occupation of Palestine.”
The Somerville rally drew hundreds of people, rather than the dozens who attended the Harvard Square protest. City Council chambers filled to capacity with people eager to see the motion pass.
John Hawkinson and Taylor Coester contributed to this report.
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Warren, Markey, Sanders, and every other senate Democrat voted to confirm Rubio. Our leaders have sold us out to fascists.