Trump and Rubio Have Violated Their Oaths of Office by Arresting Student Protesters
First Amendment Rights of Students Violated
The arrests of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk is a direct violation of the First Amendment and has revealed the authoritarian nature of the Trump administration. Under the current policy, the exercise of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly could now result in arrest and deportation, sources say.
The state-sanctioned political kidnapping of Fulbright scholar Rümeysa Öztürk by masked federal agents from Homeland Security proves that Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have violated their oaths of office. They were sworn to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”, but by arresting and jailing students who have committed no crimes they have violated the US Constitution’s guarantee to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and due process, in a blatant attempt to persecute people for their political views.
Center for Constitutional Rights Executive Director Vincent Warren says that the Trump administration will not be allowed to deport Rümeysa Öztürk or Mahmoud Kahlil. The courts will block that action as a clear violation of the constitution and lack of due process. Trump and Rubio’s justification, citing the 1798 Alien Enemies Act will not stand. That law was intended to be invoked during times of war.
What worries me most right now is that Trump may try to invoke the Insurrection Act and order the US military to conduct law enforcement activities and potentially round up people for detention at Leavenworth Detention Center near Kansas City, Missouri. Brett Wagner, who served as a professor for the U.S. Naval War College wrote an excellent article about that probability for the San Francisco Chronicle. Trump gave the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security 90 days to give him their recommendations and that deadline is April 20.
Trump’s attempts to stifle political protest will inevitably lead to more rallies and demonstrations on college campuses. When a president has decided that he is above the law, democracy suffers, but residents of the United States are not afraid to take to the streets in the face of intimidation and threats. The civil rights movement is a prime example of how people historically respond to oppression.
We can’t allow a president to abuse power in order to punish his political opposition. Freedom of speech cannot be compromised. All that we hold dear as lovers of freedom and democracy are at risk. We must stand together in unity against these current authoritarian threats.
As Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker stated, we have no kings in the USA, but the Trump administration has revealed its autocratic tendencies by using ICE to arrest student dissidents.
This is a clear case of political persecution. The president has made it clear that he intends to employ a strategy of retribution against his political enemies as a means of harassment and intimidation. The student activists have been charged with no crime. They’ve been jailed and threatened with deportation simply because of their political opinions.
This is a very serious violation of the U.S. Constitution. The Trump administration’s attorneys will have a difficult time convincing a judge that Khalil or Öztürk are a threat to national security.
These young students are opposed to genocide in Gaza. That, Mr. President, is not a crime! However, arresting an innocent person is a serious criminal act.
