Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said on Friday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that President Donald Trump was using “secret police” to cause people to “disappear” like authoritarian regimes do.
While discussing a Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, being detained by ICE agents, guest host Alicia Menendez said, “Let’s talk about that video that we all just watched, the tactics ICE agents use on Ozturk and then for the next 24 hours, her location being unknown even to her own lawyers.”
Van Hollen said, “You’re absolutely right. look, this is a terrifying video. It was obviously terrifying for her, Miss Ozturk. It’s also terrifying for our country that you could have these agents. unidentified swoop in sweep her off the streets and essentially disappear her to Louisiana apparently against a court order for exercising First Amendment rights. This should not be happening in America. This is the kind of secret police operation you would expect to see in authoritarian regimes.”
He added, “They have no legal basis that they want to at least present to the public because everyone will see just how flimsy it is, because. what appears to be happening is they’re snatching these individuals based on their exercise of free speech rights, because of their pro-Palestinian advocacy. In our country, you can exercise your right to controversial speech, and the government is not allowed to punish you for it. There’s no crime alleged in any of these cases. It appears to be based simply on what these individuals said and that is illegal, because the First Amendment does protect individuals who are here residing in the United States.”
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