Tipping Point, Part II:

In Which We Meet the Worst off the Worst

I don’t spend much time quoting Trump and his minions because their constant lies are a distraction and a delaying tactic and a power play. Debating with someone who has no respect for the truth - and no honor - is a waste of time and becomes, eventually, a form of submission and willful captivity. Repeating lies, even if only in order to debunk them, is still mostly just repeating lies. Better to simply call out the lie, ferociously and unapologetically state the truth, and move on. That said, the Donald and his minions have repeatedly claimed that the foreign-born individuals they want to throw out of the country are “killers, rapists and drug dealers”, that they are “the worst of the worst”. This is a lie. In the case of detained Boston academics Rumeysa Ozturk and Kseniia Petrova it’s a lie that is especially ridiculous, stupid, and easily disproved. In part six of this essay (and yes, six is way too many parts, I agree) I’ll take a chainsaw to the bizarro and fantastical presumptions underlying the government’s case against Rumeysa. This approach is, I think, the best and most effective way to deal with the Donald’s sprawling thicket of lies: better to just cut the whole poisonous weed off at the root than to snip our way thorn by thorn though a tangled wasteland of nonsense that only exists in order to intimidate and distract us and slow us down. For now though, let’s spend a moment meeting “the worst of the worst” and carefully debunking the details of the government’s sloppy and absurd accusations against Rumeysa and Kseniia.

Rumeysa Ozturk is in her fifth year of studying for a PhD from Tufts University, so she is - as we say here in Boston - “wicked smaht”. Her dissertation is in child development, studying how adolescents can use social media in prosocial ways, so she’s actively trying to support kids and to make the world a better place. She is a Fulbright Scholar, meaning she has received one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world and that she is literally considered to be among “the best of the best”.

She is also, apparently, a lovely person. In a recent article posted by her academic colleagues, Rumeysa’s fellow students described her like this: "Even in a department focused on human development, Rumeysa stands out as someone who reminds us daily of the importance of protecting children, cultivating joy, and connecting to our own deeper humanity.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

So what exactly did this kind, smaht, talented young woman do in order to get herself disappeared from Boston at the end of March? Rumeysa has not been charged with any crime, but she’s been accused by the government of being “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” What, exactly, were these terrorist-supporting activities? Did she rob a bank or set fire to a police car, or call for mayhem and chaos on campus? No, she did none of these things. What Rumeysa did is this: exactly 364 days before she was snatched off the streets of Somerville, Rumeysa was one of four Tufts grad students who coauthored an editorial in the campus newspaper. In the editorial, Rumeysa and her coauthors called for the university’s president to “meaningfully engage” with a student government resolution that represented “a sincere effort to hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law”. The editorial was thoughtful and respectful in tone and content. It’s most pointed sentence stated that: “Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide.” In the editorial, each of the accusations in the above sentence included a link to a supporting article by the Guardian, Amnesty International or the International Court of Justice. The editorial further stated “We, as graduate students, affirm the equal dignity and humanity of all people”. If the Donald and his henchmen were going to be honest about it - which they’re not - it might turn out that it was this sentence which was most deeply offensive to their delicate sensibilities.

You can read the full editorial here:

Non-violently affirming the equal dignity and humanity of all people is not an immoral or hateful or illegal act. Likewise, opposing the slaughter or mistreatment of innocent civilians is obviously a perfectly legal activity and is not in any way a legitimate reason for being abducted and detained by the government of the United States. Rumeysa has explained that when she was grabbed off the street in front of her home she feared she was being kidnapped and she was sure she was going to be killed. Rumeysa has also detailed some of the ways in which her detention was disruptive to her health and peace of mind and to her ability to continue her important work, disruptions that may be experienced by anyone who’s detained by this government. During her first night in custody Rumeysa was not allowed to eat or rest properly, she was not allowed to fill a prescription for her daily asthma medication and she was not allowed to contact her lawyer for more than twenty-four hours. Rumeysa had a dozen asthma attacks while in government custody and did not receive proper medical care for these attacks, which she said were triggered by the damp and unsanitary conditions, the lack of fresh air and by the stress of her confinement. Rumeysa has explained that she was not allowed outside during her first week in custody and that she was one of 24 detainees being held in a unit that was meant to hold 14. She has reported that sleep was difficult and that the guards threatened to withhold meals if detainees didn’t follow orders quickly enough. Rumeysa was scheduled to mentor college students and to teach a class over the summer, but all her plans were thrown into disarray. Rumeysa was trying to work on her dissertation in custody but she reported it took nearly two weeks to get “a few pieces of paper and pens”. It’s important to remember that the government subjected Rumeysa to all these disruptions without even bothering to charge her with an/any actual crime, in order to intimidate others into obeying in advance. Rumeysa’s arrest and detention was not just an attack on Rumeysa herself, nor was it an attack targeted solely against immigrants, or students, or activists. Rumeysa’s arrest and detention represents an attack on a fundamental and necessary pillar of American democracy: the free and protected speech guaranteed to all of us - citizens and non-citizens alike - under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Let us now consider the case of another of “the worst of the worst”. Kseniia Petrova has been a researcher at Harvard Medical School since 2023. She is a Russian citizen with “elite training” and “a combination of complex skills” in embryology, bioinformation and data science, according to the Boston Globe. Michael Gage, the manager of the Harvard lab in which Kseniia works, says “Not only is she a brilliant computer programmer and scientist, she is full of wonder, enthusiasm, and creativity” with “an infectious laugh and a razor sharp intellect that can make very difficult concepts understandable to those of us (myself very much included) that don’t share her intellectual gifts”. (And please note, she’s doing all of this in her second language.) Mr Gage continues “she is a truly remarkable and wonderful person who is deeply missed”. Kseniia’s colleagues have also pointed out that she’s the only person who can properly read the data from Harvard’s one-of-a-kind cancer-detecting microscope - because she’s the one who developed the scripts that analyze the images - and that her continuing detention will prevent important advances from being made. Kseniia’s supervisor at Harvard, Leonid Peshkin, told the Guardian that “she is spectacular, the best I’ve ever seen in 20 years at Harvard”.

“The best”.

So what horrible thing did this obviously extremely talented and apparently much-loved young woman do in order to get herself thrown in jail? You will recall (from Part I, above) that Kseniia was denied parole because she failed to prove that she’s not a “danger to the community or US security”, and that ICE had taken into account “evidence of past criminal activity” and “activity contrary to US national security interests.” With these words fresh in mind, let us explore the dreadful offense for which Kseniia has been labeled a possible threat to the national security of the United States and deprived of her liberty for more than thirteen weeks now.

Ready?

Prepare to be astounded and amazed.

Kseniia’s detention represents a masterclass in bureaucratic pettiness, brazen disregard for the law and shameless doublespeak that would make George Orwell, Richard Nixon and Franz Kafka blush. It starts off - quite badly - in the realm of the purely officious and interpersonal, before exploding into the realm of geopolitics in a way that’s both absurd and profoundly disturbing. Unlike many of the non-citizen students who’ve been recently arrested and detained, the government has not alleged that Kseniia was ever involved in protests against the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. If, however, her detainment IS related to her past political activities - as ICE appears to claim - then her continuing detention would seem to herald the rise of an unholy alliance that threatens democracy and civil society both here in America and around the world.

When you hear how Kseniia’s saga began, I think you’ll agree that the rationale for her detention is so mean-spirited and stupid it almost hurts to wrap your head around it. As Kseniia’s story progresses, I think you’ll also agree that the government’s double-down determination to prosecute this young woman - despite the utter voidness of their case - is so hare-brained and batshit crazy that it’d be funny, if it weren’t also so profoundly dangerous and so cruel.

What happened to Kseniia is this. Kseniia was arrested at Logan International Airport here in Boston back in February, as she flew home from a vacation in France. Kseniia loves classical music and she’d timed her trip so she could attend the concert of an acclaimed classical pianist.

Kseniia was charged with - wait for it - the importation of improperly declared frog embryos.

Really.

At the request of Leonid Peshkin (her supervisor at Harvard who said she was the best he’d ever seen), Kseniia was bringing the embryos back to Boston from a partner lab in France because a previous shipment had been mishandled and destroyed en route by the delivery service. Kseniia failed to declare the frog embryos properly on her customs forms. Under the law, the normal response to such an infraction would be a fine of up to $500 and maybe the confiscation of the offending items. For a first offense the fine is typically reduced to $50. Not in Kseniia’s case. In Kseniia’s case her visa was cancelled, which Kseniia’s lawyers assert is an entirely illegal action, well beyond the legal authority of a customs agent. Kseniia was denied re-entry to the United States and told that she could either choose to return to France willingly and then immediately apply for readmission, or she would be deported - in which case she would be banned from the US for five years. Kseniia chose to return to France.

In 2022, at great personal risk, Kseniia protested inside Russia against Vladimir Putin’s murderous and unprovoked invasion of democratic Ukraine. Kseniia was arrested for daring to oppose Putin’s war, but managed to make her way to the West. It wasn’t until Kseniia told the federal agents that she would likely face prison or worse if she was returned to Russia that they chose to put her in longterm detention here in the US rather than throwing her out of the country.

To state what should be extremely obvious, screwing up the paperwork while importing non-hazardous frog embryos is neither a criminal act nor a threat to the national security of the United States. When ICE denied Kseniia’s request for parole because of “past criminal activity” and “activity contrary to the US national security interests” what they appear to be referring to is her protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an invasion which was at the time vigorously condemned and strenuously opposed by the government of the United States. The fact that Kseniia is still languishing in jail rather than back at work or out on parole - apparently because of her support for Ukraine - may prove to be the earliest, most explicit and legally binding acknowledgment that our government has largely switched allegiances in this atrocious war and that the United States is now significantly aligned with the Russian invaders in their attack against the innocent democratic state of Ukraine.

The way the government has treated Kseniia since she landed at Logan back in February is clearly ridiculous and awful and utterly unjustified. You’d be hard-pressed to make up a more outlandish and mean-spirited story that starts with someone doing a favor for their boss on their way back from vacation and ends with a star scientist being held in government custody for more than three months. But wait, it gets worse. Last Tuesday Kseniia had a long-awaited hearing with a federal judge in Vermont that produced both very good and very bad news. On the one hand, it’s clearly (very) bad news that during this hearing the government confirmed their intention to deport Kseniia to Russia, despite the clear likelihood that doing so would put her life in danger. This is against longstanding US policy, and it’s further evidence of the Trump Administration’s growing alliance with Putin. On the other hand, it’s clearly extremely good news that the judge expressed profound skepticism about a customs agent having the legal authority to revoke Kseniia’s visa all by themselves, and it’s great news that the judge scheduled a bail hearing for later this month. These developments made it look like ICE was finally going to be forced to release Kseniia.

But not so fast, because it gets worse. Again. Apparently anticipating a loss coming out of Kseniia’s hearing in Vermont, shortly after that hearing the government changed tack and unsealed a new indictment against Kseniia. Kseniia is now criminally charged by the government of the United States as - drum roll - a smuggler… of frog embryos. By filing new charges and moving the venue from Louisiana to Massachusetts, the government has succeeded in blocking Kseniia’s likely release on bail. They’ve also significantly raised the stakes. If convicted on the smuggling charges, Kseniia could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Or the government could try to use the criminal charges as a justification for sending her back to Russia. In the meantime, Kseniia remains in government custody and her fate is still uncertain. Legal wrangling will continue into the foreseeable future. All this over what should’ve been a simple miscommunication and a $50 fine.

**********

Ok, that’s awful, but why should we care?

It seems clear that the government deprived these two young women of their liberty for no good reason. It’s also clear that the government couldn’t even be bothered to give much thought to crafting a plausible justification for their detention. The government’s original claims - that Rumeysa engaged in activities in support of Hamas and that Kseniia represents a threat to US national security - are transparently absurd and obviously unfounded, and they are meant to be so. In a lot of ways, the government’s reckless disregard and sloppy indifference towards what might be true or false - in these cases or in others like them - is the point. At the end of the day, the government threw these young women in jail because they wanted to and because they could, not because it was the right or legal thing to do. It’s not ok that this administration can unjustly blow up someone’s life with so little effort or thought, and that reassembling that life can be such a long and difficult process. It’s not ok that the government snatched Rumeysa off the street in less than three minutes, while Rumeysa and Kseniia’s supporters have had to spend hundreds of hours researching and explaining the many ways in which the government’s behavior was unjustified, arbitrary and illegal. It should make all of us angry to read about the continuing persecution of these accomplished young women, and to have to wade through a detailed recitation of their obvious virtues and of the petty, bad-faith nothing-burger that is the government’s case against them. Rumeysa and Kseniia should be back doing their meaningful work, surrounded by their friends and colleagues, and we should all be getting on with our lives, not needing to spend time refuting the government’s shoddy, half-assed excuses for their inexcusable behavior. And in the time it’s taken for us to begin to properly respond to the injustices inflicted on these two young women, thousands of other people have been snatched up, both here in New England and across the country.

In this ongoing wave of detentions, some cases have been similarly high-profile and some have been even more appalling, dangerous and unjust. Many of these cases involve the denial of due process rights to those in government custody and, as we’ve seen with Rumeysa and Kseniia, due process makes all the difference: due process is what got Rumeysa out of jail, and due process is all that’s kept Kseniia from being unceremoniously delivered to some Russian gulag. The most egregious of the recent cases include: the deportation without charge of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran father from Maryland who was “mistakenly” sent to the black hole prison in El Salvador despite an order that he not be sent to that country because of a credible danger to his life (the Trump Administration insanely continues to argue that yes it was a mistake to send him but gosh it’s gonna be really hard to get him back because he’s now outside of our jurisdiction); hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants - many of whom, it turns out, are actually legal immigrants to the US - who were also sent to El Salvador’s black hole prison, many of them because ICE believed their tattoos were signs of gang membership when they were in fact tributes to Michael Jordan, or to the Real Madrid soccer team, or to their Christian faith, or autism awareness, or remembrances of their mothers, or of their daughter’s birthday, or symbols holding some other private and personal meaning; the four-year-old American citizen - with late-stage cancer - who was deported to Honduras without his medicine or medical support. Most of the recent detentions passed with less notice than these insane government transgressions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were any less atrocious and it certainly doesn’t mean they were any less disruptive to the lives of those detained and their loved ones. This tidal wave of aggression and injustice is meant to overwhelm and exhaust and intimidate us. It’s meant to make us tune out and give up. Do not do this. Don’t give them the satisfaction, and don’t give them the win. Because it’s right and necessary to protect our neighbors and the rule of law, and because if the government can get away with depriving any of us of our constitutionally protected rights, then those rights functionally cease to exist in any reliable way for us all.

It is not the case that highly educated young women with specialized skills deserve to have their humanity and their basic rights respected more than those of us who lack their advanced degrees or their rarefied training. We should not care about Rumeysa and Kseniia more than we care about anyone else, because none of us are safe until all of us are safe. All of us deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and to be protected from the depredations of a flailing wannabe dictator, regardless of how many degrees or other advantages we may or may not have.

The reason, however, that it’s worth going into such detail in the cases of Rumeysa and Kseniia is that their experiences showcase the performative level of injustice and the slapstick disregard for reason, decency and the rule of law that this government is bringing to their current campaign against free speech, and against those who they identify as vulnerable and “other”. The absurdity of the charges is part of the performance. The government’s casual cruelty is likewise an embellishment - like a villain’s evil laugh - calculated to heighten the experience and achieve the desired dramatic effect. The arrest and detention of Rumeysa and Kseniia is a drunken kabuki theater of bad faith and impunity, and it is a threat. The Trump Administration is telling us “if we can disappear such high-profile and well-connected people then just imagine what we can do to the rest of you”. And they don’t just mean to intimidate less-well-connected students and immigrants. They mean to intimidate all of us: all students, all immigrants, all professors, all universities, all people of good faith - left, right or center - who might rise in opposition to their injustice and cruelty and lies. They mean to intimidate anyone who might oppose them. They are showing us that criticizing the government or the government’s authoritarian buddies can get us thrown in jail, and they’re showing us that they’re willing to break the law in order to put us there.

They want us to be silent and afraid.

All of us.

Yeaaaah… Fuck that.

This essay is part 2 of 6. You can find links to the rest of the essays in the series below.

Tipping Point, Part I: On Being Disappeared from Boston, Massacchusetts can be found here.