Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans released a joint statement on April 10 condemning the arrest and detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts doctoral student who was detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Somerville on March 25.
The statement reads: “As student organizations committed to the promotion of free political expression, such actions and the resulting consequences are contrary to the mission statements of our organizations and the core principles of the university.”
They affirm their shared belief that Öztürk’s March 2024 op-ed should not be considered a threat to national security and call on the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to “make public any evidence supporting the claim that Öztürk’s actions posed a threat to national security, violated U.S. law or breached the terms of her visa.”
Sophomore Zach Zinman, co-president of Tufts Democrats, said that Tufts Democrats released the statement because they believed what happened to Öztürk was wrong.
“We released it because what happened to Rümeysa is wrong, any way you look at it,” he said. “The bottom line is, the campus is living in a climate of fear right now. We don’t know why she was arrested. People are assuming it’s because she wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily, but we don’t even know.”
Zinman denounced the Trump administration’s lack of evidence for Öztürk’s arrest.
“Ultimately, the problem is that we don’t know why she was detained, and there’s no transparency on part of the government,” Zinman said. “So all we’re calling for is transparency, because we should have a reason. And if one of the only reasons we can think of is that she wrote this op-ed, that would be a great infringement on free speech.”
Zinman noted Trump’s platform to protect free speech and the contradiction presented by Öztürk’s arrest.
“If the Trump administration’s goal was to protect free speech, they failed spectacularly,” he said.
First-year David Seaton, co-president of Tufts Democrats, said that the goal of a bipartisan statement is to “bring everyone together and make sure that there was that breathing room for students of all ideologies to come together and support the rights and freedoms of students to speak up.”
Leaders of both clubs acknowledged the importance of bipartisanship in making this statement.
“If we’re going to make a real impact in this moment, we as Democrats cannot act alone. We have to bring the other side in and work together to really make an influence on the [Trump] administration,” Seaton said.
Senior Ethan Putlack, president of Tufts Republicans, echoed Seaton’s call.
“We joined onto this statement because we wanted to show that bipartisanship is possible, especially now when tensions are high,” he wrote in an email to the Daily.
Putlack noted the power that such a bipartisan statement has, given the nation’s polarized climate.
“I think a bipartisan statement is important because in our divided climate, a consensus on anything is rare. This statement’s existence itself sends a more powerful message than any statement that either side could make alone,” he wrote.
First-year Avery Ohliger, outreach director for Tufts Democrats, said, “We felt that if this was one of the rare occasions in which our clubs can agree, we should tell people about it, because we have an obligation to tell people that we do agree on this and that this isn’t a partisan issue.”
Leaders of both Tufts Republicans and Tufts Democrats highlighted the collaborative process of writing the statement.
“We had a shared Google Doc, but we were collaborating, emailing or texting back and forth and deciding on the wording. Everything was intentional,” Ohliger said.
“We went back and forth several times,” Putlack wrote. “Both sides had access to the statement and could make changes at will. I think that [Tufts Democrats] were very willing to accept our changes.”
Ohliger acknowledged that the statement is intentionally broad. Although there are partisan aspects of the topic regarding Öztürk’s arrest, Ohliger said that the broad statement allowed for consensus.
“I hope that the statement shows students that politics shouldn’t be as divisive as the media makes it out to be and that civil discussion can be had even between the most partisan people so long as they are willing to hear opposing viewpoints,” Putlack wrote.
“Just because we’re polarized doesn’t mean we can’t work together,” Zinman said. “When there is injustice, we have to reach out to the other side to try to build unity. I think it’s our job as civically engaged citizens to do this type of work. I think it’s our duty to do this kind of work.”
Seaton hopes that a joint statement will bring students on campus together as well.
“We have people from all across the political spectrum, it doesn’t matter anymore whether you’re on the left or on the right,” he said. “It just matters that you’re supporting free speech, that you’re supporting Rümeysa. We’re all on the same page here.”
