Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called the arrest of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk “chilling,” as he warned of further democratic backsliding in the U.S.
In an interview Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Murphy was asked to respond to video footage of Ozturk, a Turkish national on a student visa, being detained by six masked agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) late Tuesday.
The video shows the agents surrounding Ozturk, who yelled as they took her phone, placed her in handcuffs and escorted her away.
“The video is really chilling, and this should matter to every single American,” Murphy said in response.
The Connecticut Democrat also expressed concern over the Trump administration invoking the Alien Enemies Act to justify President Trump’s push to deport foreign nationals, saying the president already can “remove from this country people who pose a threat to the nation, people who have engaged in criminal behavior or who have coordinated with terrorist groups.”
“He has that power under existing law to remove from the country noncitizens,” Murphy continued. “So, he doesn’t need this authority.”
Murphy said it appears the president is trying to “put America on war footing,” noting the act has only been exercised three times in the country’s history: during the War of 1812, during World War I and during World War II.
“It is a wartime authority, and what you really worry about is the president continuing to move forward in exercising wartime powers in order to suspend additional elements of the Constitution,” the lawmaker added.
Murphy also noted Trump has previously expressed interest in the Insurrection Act, which would put the military in charge of everyday law enforcement in the country. The New England Democrat warned Trump could be putting the country on track toward “a kind of quasi-martial law.”
“You are watching, along multiple channels, this massive slide away from democracy and democratic norms,” he told MSNBC.
“And so that video is chilling because, A, the president doesn’t need that act to be able to remove a threat, but, B, it speaks to his willingness to try to put America in a kind of quasi-martial law that ultimately will come to be a threat, not just to green card holders, but to American citizens as well,” Murphy said.
The lawmaker added, “So it’s a really worrying time, and everybody in America should care what’s happening.”
Homeland Security officials confirmed Ozturk’s detention and termination of her student visa, in a statement to The Associated Press, saying “investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”
“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” the statement continued. “Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common sense security.”
The AP reported Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed last year in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to demands that it “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
That was Ozturk’s only known example of “anti-Israel activism” cited by Canary Mission, a controversial organization that tracks students who it says “promote hatred of the U.S.A., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.”
Ozturk’s friends told the AP she was not otherwise closely involved in anti-Israel protests last year. Her lawyer filed a petition in federal court in Boston, saying she was detained without explanation.
