the terrifying case of Yunseo Chung
slipping deeper and deeper into a fascist dystopia
I've been sitting here appalled this morning by the story about Columbia student Yunseo Chung reported by the New York Times yesterday. Every day, it seems, our government gets more and more dystopian and fascist in its campaign against its enemies and anyone not born in this country, and against the basic rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The pursuit of Ms. Chung is an appalling attack on due process, free speech, and basic human decency, waged by an Administration hell bent on stifling all dissent and asserting supreme control over anyone living in the United States.
From the Times story by Jonah E. Bromwich and Hamid Aleaziz, here is the basic outline of what is happening:
A 21-year-old Columbia University student who has lived in the United States since she was a child sued President Trump and other high-ranking administration officials on Monday after immigration officials tried to arrest and deport her.
The student, Yunseo Chung, is a legal permanent resident and junior who has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school. The Trump administration is arguing that her presence in the United States hinders the administration’s foreign policy agenda of halting the spread of antisemitism.
Administration officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, cited the same rationale in explaining the arrest this month of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of the university and permanent resident who is being held in Louisiana.
Unlike Mr. Khalil, Ms. Chung does not appear to have been a prominent figure in the demonstrations that shook the school last year. But she was one of several students arrested this year in connection with a protest at Barnard College.
Ms. Chung, a high school valedictorian who moved to the United States with her family from South Korea when she was 7, has not been detained by ICE. She remains in the country, but her lawyers would not comment on her whereabouts.
Ms. Chung is a model student, a legal permanent resident as American as you or I - she has resided here since she was 7, which shouldn't even matter but does apparently. Her "crimes" were the exercise of her Constitutional and human right to free speech and thought. Here is the accusation:
Ms. Chung, who majors in English and gender studies, has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations since last year. Her lawyers say that she did not speak to reporters, negotiate on behalf of student demonstrators, or in any other way take a leadership position.
She was, however, accused by the university of joining other students in posting fliers that pictured members of the board of trustees with the phrase “wanted for complicity in genocide.” According to the lawsuit, the school did not find that Ms. Chung had violated any of its “applicable policies.”
The dizzying sequence of events that appears to have prompted ICE agents to show up at her house appears to have begun this month.
On March 5, Ms. Chung protested outside a Barnard College building where pro-Palestinian student demonstrators were holding a sit-in. She was arrested by police officers, given a desk appearance ticket on the misdemeanor charge of obstructing governmental administration and released.
Ms. Chung is being hunted by our government because she joined protests and took part in a sit-in. That's it. She was briefly cited and released. Is this really the bare pretext we are using these days to go on witch-hunts against foreigners? Does this really not trigger alarm for a good chunk of people in this country?
Of course, the government's excuses are cover for the real offense Ms. Chung committed: being born somewhere other than on American soil. The antisemitism/pro-Hamas stuff is all BS, window dressing on the fascist police-state crackdown on anyone not suitably American in the eyes of our Dear Leader. Its a pretext to scapegoat and gain increasing control over American life and institutions. And half our country shrugs its shoulders.
You can see it in the government’s ad hoc approach to even defining the crimes and penalties, seemingly making this up as they go along to fit the agenda:
On March 10, Perry Carbone, a high-ranking lawyer in the federal prosecutor’s office, told Ms. Ahmad, Ms. Chung’s attorney, that the secretary of state, Mr. Rubio, had revoked Ms. Chung’s visa. Ms. Ahmad responded that Ms. Chung was not in the country on a visa and was a permanent resident. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Carbone responded that Mr. Rubio had “revoked that” as well.
This is one of the most chilling parts of this entire story. The facts don’t matter. The crimes will be made to fit the needs of the moment. And one person has been granted the authority to make these decisions. It’s the kind of things dictatorships are built on.
How do we know the charges and accusations are beside the point? We know because, if the Trump Administration really cared about antisemitism, they wouldn't be associating with figures like Elon Musk, or Andrew Tate, or Nick Fuentes, or Laura Loomer, or the January 6th terrorists, or a whole host of other figures within and around the Administration. Hamas, antisemitism, national security: its all an excuse to curtail rights and curb freedoms that Americans take for granted.
“Like many thousands of students nationwide, Yunseo raised her voice against what is happening in Gaza and in support of fellow students facing unfair discipline,” said Ms. Ahmad, a co-director of CLEAR. “It can’t be the case that a straight-A student who has lived here most of her life can be whisked away and potentially deported, all because she dares to speak up.”
At first, it was just immigrants here illegally who committed violent crimes. Then, it was anyone here illegally. Then, it was gang members. Then, it was ringleaders in outspoken groups. Now, its just regular students lightly participating in protests and sit-ins. Who is next? I support the rights of Palestinians and oppose the genocide happening in Gaza. How long until I am too dangerous to be allowed to remain loose on American streets?
I’m sure many conservatives and MAGA folks and even some moderates will read this as being too alarmist, overly dramatic and hysterical. I’ll be told I need to get a grip, that this is just regular immigration enforcement, or an important step towards stronger policy, or a simple mistake that surely will be fixed, or politics as usual. But, its not. This is scary, and outrageous, and I’m genuinely worried about the future of American democracy and our basic freedoms. If you think the Trump Administration won’t go too far, well, you’ve got a lot more faith in politicians and elites to do the right thing than I do. I’d call it naive, but that seems too soft a word for that kind of cope.
We have to get serious about opposing these moves. The slope is beyond slippery on these issues. Our rights are so fragile, and we are seeing them being stripped away right now. You may think it will never happen to you. So did everyone else it ever happened to.
One last thing, on a related note: if you haven’t read the Time Magazine feature on the transport of detainees to the human rights hellhole prison in El Salvador, please do. Its a shocking story, with a host of deeply affecting photographs, of the inhumanity of what is happening, that forces you to confront the human cost of the choices our leaders are making on our behalf. In particular, I am haunted by the story of Andrys, as he was named by his lawyer after the story appeared, a gay Venezuelan stylist who was in American legally under Temporary Protected Status:
The intake began with slaps. One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” I believed him. But maybe it’s only because he didn’t look like what I had expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.
The men were pulled from the buses so fast the guards couldn’t keep pace. Chained at their ankles and wrists, they stumbled and fell, some guards falling to the ground with them. With each fall came a kick, a slap, a shove. The guards grabbed necks and pushed bodies into the sides of the buses as they forced the detainees forward. There was no blood, but the violence had rhythm, like a theater of fear.
Inside the intake room, a sea of trustees descended on the men with electric shavers, stripping heads of hair with haste. The guy who claimed to be a barber began to whimper, folding his hands in prayer as his hair fell. He was slapped. The man asked for his mother, then buried his face in his chained hands and cried as he was slapped again.
How can you read that and not feel something, anything? Andrys is not a criminal. His links to any gang or terrorist organization are laughable to anyone with common sense or basic human decency. But, beyond that, he was never convicted of a crime. He did not have a day in court. Our government never had to prove its claim that he is dangerous before a judge. The rule of law - and human rights - were so badly trampled here as to be barely recognizable. And all of this was done in the name of “national security.” It seems to me we are less secure because of these actions, not more so.