There is something particularly American about the way we’re dismantling our democracy these days — we are doing it with paperwork. While the world watches our grand political theater, immigration agents are quietly canceling visas, filling out deportation orders and reshaping the boundaries of acceptable speech without firing a single shot.
I think about Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate who committed no crime beyond speaking his mind. I think about Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts whose academic career hangs by a thread. These stories are not just about immigration status but about who is American enough to participate in its democracy and under what conditions.
We are experiencing the weaponization of the First Amendment. It’s a familiar pattern to those of us who study American history.
During the Red Scare, it was deportation orders against immigrant labor organizers. During the Civil Rights Movement, local ordinances were selectively enforced against protesters. Now, it’s the calculated use of immigration law to chill political speech.
Federal authorities assure us no one is being arrested for their speech. These are simply routine immigration matters.