AMY GOODMAN: We begin today in Massachusetts, where over a thousand protesters gathered near Tufts University Wednesday after masked, plainclothes immigration agents snatched Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts Ph.D. student, from the streets of Somerville. Ozturk is a doctoral student in the school’s Department of Child Study and Human Development. She’s a research assistant at Tufts’ Children’s Television Project. She’s a former Fulbright scholar who was born in Turkey.

Surveillance video from a nearby house shows agents approaching her on the streets near her home Tuesday evening. In the video, you can hear her scream as the agents move to detain her.

RUMEYSA OZTURK: [inaudible]

AMY GOODMAN: Rumeysa Ozturk was making her way with friends to a meal to break her Ramadan fast.

Tufts University’s president said the school had no prior notice of her arrest. Last March, Ozturk wrote a piece in the student newspaper criticizing Tufts’ response to Palestinian solidarity protests on campus which were calling for divestment from Israel.

Democracy Now!'s Hany Massoud and Ariel Boone were in Somerville at Wednesday night's protest.

FATEMA AHMAD: When immigrants are under attack, what we do?

PROTESTERS: Stand up! Fight back!

FATEMA AHMAD: When students are under attack, what we do?

PROTESTERS: Stand up! Fight back!

FATEMA AHMAD: I am Fatema Ahmad. I am executive director of Muslim Justice League. I want to start with an attorney statement. To clarify, I am not Rumeysa’s attorney, but this is a statement shared from her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, just to start us off. “Thank you all for coming out to support Rumeysa this evening. I hope to speak with her soon, and we’ll be telling her about the outpouring of love and support. Unfortunately, I recently received word that she was transferred to Louisiana.”

PROTESTERS: Boo! Shame! Shame!

FATEMA AHMAD: “I don’t understand why it took the government nearly 24 hours from her detention to let me know her whereabouts. DHS would have been made aware of the habe filing last night. Why she was transferred to Louisiana despite the court’s order is unfathomable. Rumeysa should immediately be brought back to Massachusetts, released and allowed to return to complete her Ph.D. program. Our country is built upon a system of laws and accountability. We look forward to her having her day in court.”

PROTESTERS: Fight back!

FATEMA AHMAD: Stand up! Fight back!

PROTESTERS: Stand up! Fight back!

FATEMA AHMAD: Stand up! Fight back!

PROTESTERS: Stand up! Fight back!

NICOLE: Hello, everyone. My name is Nicole, and I am an East Somerville resident. And I am one of the volunteer coordinators of the Somerville ICE Watch Network. The city of Somerville and many other cities in Massachusetts call ourselves a sanctuary city. But what does that really mean if our neighbors are being disappeared by state violence for weeks and there’s been silence and inaction? What our community needs to know is that how horrifying this incident and Rumeysa’s kidnapping may be, this is the terror and the threats that our immigrant neighbors live under every single day.

SAM ALTERMAN: My name is Sam Alterman. I am a Ph.D. grad worker at Tufts University, and I am proud to be one of the head stewards for the Tufts University Graduate Workers Union SEIU 509. I am even more proud to call Rumeysa Ozturk a colleague, a union sibling and a friend. Our union stands shoulder to shoulder with Rumeysa, with Mahmoud Khalil and Momodou Taal and with every worker in the United States who is attacked for exercising their free speech rights. We believe that all workers, regardless of citizenship, visa status or documentation, have a right to be safe in their workplace and in their communities, to speak their minds without fear of retaliation or harassment, and to participate in civic life. One hundred years ago, during the first and second Red Scares, the federal government also attempted to shamelessly and violently abuse immigration law to chill free speech and attack working people. The labor movement fought back then, and we need to fight back now.

ARIEL BOONE: Can you say your name and who you’re with?

LEA KAYALI: Yeah, Lea Kayali, and I’m with the Palestinian Youth Movement. We had hundreds of Bostonians coming out here today because they are angered about what happens when one of our community members was taken by armed agents of the state, who kidnapped her from outside of her home. People are here to stand up for the movement that she was punished for supporting, the movement for a free Palestine and to end the genocide in Gaza. And they’re also here to continue to support our immigrant neighbors, who have been getting picked up by ICE ever since, you know, not just Trump came into office, but Biden before him and every administration. So we are out here to continue to demand a free Palestine, to demand ICE out of our communities and to fight for collective liberation.

FATEMA AHMAD: I’m Fatema Ahmad. I’m with Muslim Justice League.

ARIEL BOONE: Can you describe what happened to Rumeysa?

FATEMA AHMAD: Yes. So, as far as we understand, you know, Rumeysa was actually under surveillance maybe for a day or two by ICE agents. So, her neighbors actually reported seeing these cars parked on the street for about two days. And then, she was on her way to an iftar with her friends. And you can see very clearly in the video that, you know, these people just surround her and take her. They don’t explain who they are. There’s no indication on their — you know, no vests, nothing, no badges or anything. And so, neighbors who saw this were, of course, frightened and reported it, assuming that it was ICE. And it was ICE, in fact, that took her.

I think 9/11 and the “war on terror” was obviously a huge escalation in not just surveillance and policing, but the structure of the government — right? — creating the Department of Homeland Security, creating ICE, which are now these massive departments eating up our budgets and coming for our community members. And every step of the way, you know, many community members have spoken out and said, “We can’t accept these things. We can’t keep adding more and more surveillance, more and more policing, more and more militarization. It will eventually come for all of us.” And I think this is the moment where a lot of people realize it is coming for everybody.

AMY GOODMAN: Some of the voices from over a thousand protesters who gathered near Tufts University Wednesday evening, after masked, plainclothes immigration agents snatched Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts doctoral student, from the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts.

When we come back, we speak with Mother Jones voting rights correspondent Ari Berman and go from President Trump’s new executive order to require proof of citizenship to register to vote to next week’s Supreme Court in Wisconsin election, where the billionaire Elon Musk is backing a conservative candidate who could flip the court. He’s promising to pay voters. Stay with us.