On March 25, six people in masks approached Rümeysa Öztürk on a Somerville, Massachusetts street. The group surrounded the Tufts PhD student, and claimed they were “the police.” As Öztürk began to call her sister, they escorted her away. Unable to contact her lawyer, Öztürk was shipped across several state lines. She was never charged with a crime. And it was only later that Öztürk’s lawyers learned she had been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on suspicion of “support for Hamas.”

The claim did not make sense. Öztürk is not a well-known activist. The only reason for her arrest—and potential deportation—her lawyers and friends could find was a single op-ed in a student newspaper written in support of Palestine. How did such a small thing get her on ICE’s radar? How did it warrant an operation that played out like a disappearance?