Students Silenced: Freedom of Expression

For most high school seniors, this is a pivotal year in our lives: we are teenagers becoming young adults, trying to picture ourselves four years from now in a place miles away from home. We may imagine ourselves attending our “dream school,” usually a prestigious university where it seems like the opportunities are endless. But the opportunities at colleges are becoming more limited — and as of late, fear and paranoia has overshadowed the excitement I once felt about applying to college. I once thought of college as a place where I would be free to explore and find my place in the world, but I can’t help but become more and more disillusioned. 

Many universities changed the way they operate to appease the Trump administration and keep their funding, moving to halt affirmative action, remove DEI programs, and ban transgender athletes. One of the most alarming changes in recent years, though, is the increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as arrests of immigrants ramp up. On college campuses, the Trump administration has specifically focused on detaining and attempting to deport outspoken students with pro-Palestine beliefs. 

Mahmoud Khalil was a permanent resident and graduate student who became a prominent spokesperson for pro-Palestine campus protests at Columbia University. In March 2025, he was arrested in the lobby of his on-campus residence without a warrant. His wife gave birth to their son without him while he was detained, his request to be present refused by the New Orleans ICE director. Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student on a student visa at Tufts University, wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily urging her university to divest from Israeli companies and recognize the Palestinian genocide ‒‒ a genocide that has been recognized by various humanitarian organizations, scholars, and most recently an independent UN Commission. She was then doxxed, arrested outside her apartment, and denied a lawyer in the same month that Khalil was detained. The ICE officers were masked and in plain clothes, not identified as ICE agents, leaving a bystander and Öztürk herself believing she had been kidnapped. 

Both these student activists had no criminal charges, arrested and detained by ICE for being non-citizens peacefully expressing their political views. They aren’t the only students who were targeted: In a March 27 statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio boasted that at least 300 international students’ visas had been revoked for “destabilizing” behavior, and ICE is “looking every day.” There are dozens of stories from these students on the news cycle, students of various ages, immigration statuses, and degrees of involvement with pro-Palestine activity. The crackdown on student movements became so harsh that even those who were uninvolved faced e visa revocation and detention. Some, like Columbia doctoral student Ranjani Srinivasan, were simply walking by a campus protest. Non-citizens are now in a position where they are not allowed the right to freedom of speech or due process, rights that the Constitution grants to anyone on U.S. soil regardless of citizenship. The administration is weaponizing ICE to silence students who speak up. And universities are complacent, allowing these arrests to occur in non-public spaces without warrants.

I have seen so many of the schools that I once aspired to attend stand by as ICE detains their students and denies their rights, and it’s disappointing to see universities’ complicity in this repression. And while citizens may not be in danger of deportation, universities have been withholding degrees from students who speak up. A prominent example is the disciplinary action taken against Logan Rozos, an NYU valedictorian who spoke up during his commencement speech condemning the U.S.’s involvement in Gaza. Apparently, being American means being silent and completely uncritical of the U.S. government. Otherwise, you may lose access to higher education, or, if you have already graduated, your degree may be revoked or withheld by your university.

My parents immigrated to the U.S. because they saw it as a country of freedom and stability, a place where they could further their education at world-class universities. But now, it has become a country that professors and experts in authoritarianism are fleeing from. The importance of education has been instilled in me from a young age, but how can anyone expect to learn effectively if their speech is being policed, if their classmates are being detained and deported for their views? Part of being an educated young adult is developing political literacy and engaging with our country’s politics. Sadly, it looks like it will become more and more difficult for students, especially students of color and non-citizens, to speak freely about politics without fear of being silenced. But to me, being American doesn’t mean unconditionally supporting the government’s activities and looking the other way from its violence. It means standing firm in what you believe, no matter how uncomfortable it may get. From the 19th century abolitionist movement to the Vietnam War, student movements have always been an instrumental part of American history, and the ideals of this country teach us to use our freedom of expression to question the status quo. Regardless of where we go or the dangers we might face, we should remember that our voices have power.