Workers organized with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the largest unions in the US, staged rallies across the country on April 1 to demand the release of imprisoned union members Rumeysa Ozturk and Lewelyn Dixon, who have both been abducted by Trump’s immigration authorities.
Ozturk is a Tufts University graduate student and a member of SEIU Local 509, which represents student workers at the institution. She was kidnapped by plainclothes federal agents when she was walking to an Iftar dinner on the night of March 25. A harrowing video of Ozturk’s kidnapping by plainclothes immigration agents has gone viral on social media. The PhD student is one of many pro-Palestine students targeted by the Trump administration, a list which includes Mahmoud Khalil and the hundreds of international students who have had their visas revoked according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us 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’re not going to give you a visa,” said Rubio at a press conference on March 27. As the Secretary of State stated very plainly, “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”
SEIU issued a statement following Ozturk’s kidnapping, lamenting that “America’s role as a beacon of freedom and human rights is being extinguished, and our leading universities are rapidly becoming graveyards for free speech rights, with students and faculty living in fear.”
“As a union representing workers across higher education, including faculty, graduate workers and administrative staff, we call upon university officials, elected leaders and the courts to stand together to defend the rights of students and faculty,” the union continued.
64-year-old Lewelyn Dixon is a lab technician at the University of Washington and a member of SEIU Local 925. She was detained by immigration authorities after returning to the US following a visit to see her family in the Philippines.
On April 1, SEIU projected the slogans “Free Speech, Free Workers” onto their headquarters in Washington, DC. Several union locals also participated in actions to demand the freedom of Ozturk and Dixon from ICE custody, including SEIU Local 32BJ members who participated in rallies in New York City, Boston, Fairfax. SEIU members in Atlanta rallied outside of the ICE Atlanta Field Office, holding signs with slogans such as “Free Rumeysa! Defend Free Speech!”
Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, the largest union federation in the US, also registered her support for Ozturk, stating that she was “arrested by masked ICE agents because of an op-ed she wrote.”
“We stand with SEIU in demanding due process and rejecting this abuse of power,” Shuler wrote.
