Readers Write: U student detained by ICE, Terminal 1 gridlock, creative writing

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Each day a handful of troubling developments arise from the current administration’s policies. Few are as alarming as the detention and deportation of international students at American universities.

It can be easy for some to discount events happening at Columbia or Tufts Universities or someplace distant. It’s more difficult to ignore those occurring in our state. Recently, the University of Minnesota made a statement that on March 27, an international student was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials (“International grad student at U detained by ICE agents,” March 29).

From any perspective, this should be horrifying. These are students who, legally, have a protected right to the freedoms every American enjoys, especially freedom of speech. In practice, this has proved to be untrue. The fact is that international students are only able to engage in speech greenlit by the Trump administration.

This should appall every American. Universities have long been bastions for social movements. Opposition to South Africa’s apartheid, the Vietnam War and racial segregation were all aided by outspoken student movements. Recent policy strips students of that ability.

To have official U.S. policy be that voices opposed to the president are not welcome in the U.S. is concerning at the very least. Why would any student endeavor to study at any American university when, at any time, their visa can be revoked for attending a protest, penning a letter or speaking too loudly? At a time when we need the brightest the world has to offer, we are instead sending the message “Do not come here.”

Jean-Luc Genereau, Duluth

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Peaceful protests are inherently democratic. They are protected by the Constitution. Until we are shown evidence to the contrary, I will assume that the international student at the University of Minnesota recently detained by ICE was operating within this legal framework. [Opinion editor’s note: As of March 31, the reason for the student’s arrest is unclear.]

It is time for American progressives to reclaim the evolving narrative about worldwide protests that have taken place in support of Palestine. We must push back on this administration’s sloppy attempts to equate “pro-Palestine” with antisemitism or being pro-Hamas. Protesters who participated in rallies to demand a ceasefire to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians should not retreat in shame or fear. According to the Vatican, more than 13,000 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israeli military since October 2023. It is right and just for people with a moral compass to oppose this U.S.-funded carnage.

Michelle Woster, Minneapolis

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The Founding Fathers — James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and others — strongly emphasized the importance of freedom of speech as a fundamental right essential to democracy. They saw it as a safeguard against tyranny and a means for citizens to express their opinions, criticize the government and engage in open debate. Free speech has always been the cornerstone of our democracy. The haunting video of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar and graduate student at Tufts University, being approached, handcuffed and hauled away by government agents is chilling — something straight out of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Make no mistake: What we are witnessing in our country is the dismantling of free speech and democracy, replaced by the creeping rise of tyranny. The words of Pastor Martin Niemöller — “First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Communist” — rang true in 1946, and they are tragically relevant today. If we remain silent, who will speak for us when our freedoms are taken? Speak up, speak out and resist.

Peter Woollen, Minneapolis

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Watch the video of Mahmoud Khalil, and then of Ozturk, being detained. What happened to them — the knock at the door, being taken away to who-knows-where — has frightening echoes for me as a Jew in our own history. Our administration seems to be claiming that this is good for the Jews, that they are fighting antisemitism (see the March 26 New York Times article “Federal Government Detains International Student at Tufts”). I beg to differ. This is bad for Jews and bad for America. What is good for Jews is a robust democracy, and the rule not of autocrats, but of law.

Shoshana Dworsky, St. Paul

The writer is a rabbi and former associate chaplain for Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges.

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First it was the dissident students, then the lawyers, the judges, the journalists, the people dedicated to public health and well-being, then anybody who remained faithful to the truths we once held to be self-evident. And the MAGA crowd applauded the whole time.

Ben Seymour, Minneapolis

There is a simple solution to the subject James Lileks discusses in his March 29 column, but the MSP Airport Police Department evidently does not want to use it (“Inside Terminal 1, calm abounds”). No vehicles should be permitted to stop without starting to load a passenger within a minute or two. If everyone coming to pick up arriving passengers would not enter the arrivals area before receiving a message that their arriving passengers were at such and such a location with their baggage, there would not be any reason for the many vehicles just standing along the curb. All the MSP police do is try to move people along, and it does not work very effectively. They need to be very quick and firm about writing tickets and the current chaotic situation would quickly subside — vehicle drivers would learn very quickly that they cannot arrive to pick up passengers without them being ready to be picked up.

They have used this method at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and vehicles do not arrive early. If they do, they learn it will not be tolerated since tickets are issued very quickly.

If someone is picking up a handicapped passenger, there should be an exception to the time and/or an alternate location for pickup of such passengers where the time should be lengthened to five to 10 minutes after the handicapped person has arrived at the location designated for pickup.

Dennis Martenson, Corcoran, Minn.

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I really enjoyed Lileks’ story on MSP gridlock, but I have one more suggestion for drivers seeking calm. Just past the cellphone lot is the entrance to Fort Snelling State Park. This has always been my go-to when I’m early to pick someone up — at least when the park is open.

Mike Schowalter, Minneapolis

In the “Readers Write” section of the March 30 paper, a letter writer observed that: “Without Hamline’s offering of evening classes for writers who work, the remaining graduate programs are, in the case of the University of St. Thomas, either offered as master of arts degrees ... or, in the case of the University of Minnesota, extremely selective.” This is incorrect. Augsburg University has operated a low-residency MFA program since 2013. By allowing its students to study remotely for all but seven days each year, it is the program best-suited to meeting the needs of working writers. Furthermore, by allowing its students to receive mentored instruction in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting and screenwriting, it provides a wider range of offerings than any other creative writing program in the state and region.

Stephan Eirik Clark, St. Paul

The writer is co-director of Augsburg University’s creative writing MFA program.