April 1, 2025

The International Action Center calls on all students who have citizen rights in the United States and who identify with the right to protest to take actions to defend any students that have been targeted by the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cops. WW calls on the anti-imperialist movement to join and support any of these efforts.

Look at the following three examples already underway to defend students — in the courts and in the streets — who courageously demonstrated their opposition to the U.S.-Israeli-inflicted genocide in Gaza.

Rümeysa Öztürk is a doctoral student and Fullbright scholar of Turkish citizenship at Tufts University in suburban Boston. She was seized by masked, plainclothes ICE agents who assaulted and zip-tied her while she was walking in her Somerville, Massachusetts, neighborhood March 25. The Gestapo-like assault was caught on video and seen by millions of people worldwide.

Outraged by the assault, thousands of people converged on Tufts University on March 26 to demand that ICE immediately release Öztürk from her rendition to an ICE concentration camp in Louisiana. Two of Boston’s largest unions — Service Employees (SEIU), of which Öztürk is a member, and the Boston Teachers Union (BTU) — have demanded Öztürk’s immediate release and an end to the ICE raids. A federal judge ruled on March 28 that Öztürk cannot be deported without a court order.