Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa �-ztürk had her student visa revoked and was snatched off the streets of Somerville by immigration agents last March because of speech.

If there were any lingering questions about whether �-ztürk committed any wrongdoing, they were put to rest by documents unsealed last week in US District Court in Boston.

Her sole offense, the documents reveal, was to commit free speech — in a country with a constitutional right to free speech enshrined in the First Amendment. It’s the latest travesty by a Trump administration that’s shown blatant disregard for the rights of Americans and non-Americans.

If, because of the experiences of �-ztürk and others like her, international students fear to speak their minds and contradict the government — or simply choose not to study here at all — our campuses will be poorer for it.

As Conor Fitzpatrick, supervising senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told the editorial board, colleges should be a marketplace of ideas. “It’s the place where not only scientific theories but social science theories and political theories get put to the test. No idea is sacred, everything is fair game for disagreement and study,” Fitzpatrick said. “Inviting someone to attend a US university on a visa but saying you’re not allowed to express these ideas or write a paper expressing this opinion, that’s not what an American education is about.”

US government memos justifying the visa revocations of �-ztürk and several other students were unsealed by US District Judge William Young in a court case that the American Association of University Professors brought against Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other federal officials. The lawsuit charges that the administration’s detention and deportation of noncitizen students for ideological reasons — because they participated in pro-Palestinian protests or expression — violates the First Amendment.

According to a memo a consular affairs official wrote to Rubio, the concerns about �-ztürk, who is Turkish, stem entirely from an op-ed she co-wrote for The Tufts Daily. The op-ed criticized university administration for being dismissive of resolutions passed by the student Senate requiring the university to recognize “genocide” in Gaza, divest from Israeli companies, and cease selling Israeli products in dining halls.

The op-ed referenced several pro-Palestinian student groups that oppose the university’s response, one of which was suspended — months after the op-ed was published — for using images of weapons to promote a rally and urging “intifada.”

There’s no indication �-ztürk was part of the suspended group or involved in its actions. In fact, the memo wrote that federal agencies found no evidence of antisemitic activity or support for a terrorist group by �-ztürk. Yet it recommended visa revocation based on a “totality of the circumstances.”

Young ruled last week in favor of the American Association of University Professors, finding that the Trump administration implemented the president’s executive orders on visas and antisemitism in “a viewpoint-discriminatory way to chill protected speech.”

The Trump administration’s attempts to infringe on those rights take us back to the time when that Supreme Court case was decided, an era when the fear of communism led to a chilling of free speech. As a country, that should not be an era we wish to return to.

As Veena Dubal, general counsel of the American Association of University Professors, told the editorial board, “A central premise of freedom in the United States is freedom to speak our minds, to engage in critical debate or conversation without fear of state reprisal.”

One can — and should — oppose �-ztürk’s visa revocation regardless of what one thinks of her views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The Trump administration seeks to abridge the right to free speech in America. Universities, their allies, and all Americans must continue to fight for that right.

— Boston Globe