Ilhan Omar Accuses ICE Of 'Abduction' Of Pro-Palestinian Student_ 'Directly Out Of The McCarthy Playbook'

Forbes Breaking News

At last week's House Education and Workforce Education Committee hearing, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) accused the Trump Administration of McCarthyite tactics against pro-Palestinian students.

Transcript

00:00from Minnesota, Ms. Omar. Thank you, Chairman. It seems that the majority on this committee is

00:09eager to continue enabling this administration's repressive agenda. President Trump's attack on

00:16civil liberties and academic freedom are well documented. While Republicans continue their

00:21charade, new information about the Trump administration's policy of ideological

00:26deportations is coming to light. Last week, a senior ICE official testified in court that the

00:34agency is using the website, Canary Mission, to target students for deportation. Canary Mission

00:42is an anonymous site that blacklists and doxes individuals, charging them with antisemitism

00:48through little evidence or zero due process. It has long been criticized for its McCarthyism

00:55tactics that surveil students, repress speech, and instill a culture of fear across campuses.

01:04This is a site that reframes attending an anti-war protest as supporting pro-Hamas rally. It is

01:13not known who runs this site, but the agenda is clear pro-Palestinian advocacy cannot be tolerated.

01:22And now this ideological agenda has a direct line to state power. Let's recall the high-profile case

01:29of student Ramesa Oztuk, who was illegally detained by ICE and held for six weeks after writing an op-ed

01:39in support of Palestine. Curiously, that op-ed was published an entirely a year before ICE chose to target her.

01:48But right before her abduction, Canary Mission posted a profile of her on its website accusing her of

01:56anti-Israel activism for writing the article. The same profile that ICE has now admitted to using

02:03in their internal memo. In a matter of weeks, she was picked up and her student status was terminated.

02:10Conary Mission loudly claimed credit for her detention, and it seems that credit was earned.

02:19This shameless authoritarian display of weaponizing a blacklist to crack down on political speech and detain academics

02:28is a page directly out of the McCarthy playbook. President Kropes, Chancellor Rodriguez, and Chancellor Lyon,

02:38this question is for the three of you. In the light of these escalations with students facing detention,

02:44deportation, and retaliation for their clearly protected speech, how are your campuses protecting students

02:51who are exercising their First Amendment rights?

02:56We have free speech policies that are crystal clear. In fact, we've clarified them over time

03:03to permit speech. We don't permit any violence with regard to the promotion of any particular viewpoint.

03:13And we try to act on violations of those policies quickly and fairly.

03:19Thank you. Chancellor Rodriguez.

03:21We make sure that all students are informed about our policies. We want students and all the members

03:28of our community to exercise the right to free speech, but they have to do it abiding by our rules and regulations.

03:35We're also investing, as I indicated earlier, in this constructive dialogue initiative. We want individuals

03:41to have the tools to have difficult conversations to be able to have them, but to do it in a way that

03:46is respectful and civilized. And the best way also to empower the students is to provide them with information.

03:51Mm-hmm. Chancellor Lyons.

03:53We are supporting with education and training over 30 anti-bias initiatives to make sure that students can

04:00see into these issues more deeply. New curriculum, like what I mentioned earlier, of course, like openness to opposing views,

04:07sharpening where the no-tolerance lines are, which was very, very helpful, I believe, for the students

04:14to feel like they could safely express their free speech rights. And understand...

04:19And at what stage, to the three of you again, will you intervene when students are being doxxed?

04:25We've seen fans in front of your campuses with students being doxxed.

04:30Well, at Berkeley, the question there is, if a doxxing or other discrimination or harassment

04:41event would be reported, and we would follow it up with an investigation and make a decision.

04:48And we have a webpage that we indicate to members of the community as a resource for the different...

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