A significant labor union launched a six-figure advert marketing campaign on Tuesday that includes Tufts College Ph.D. scholar Rumeysa Ozturk decrying what it known as an infringement on the First Modification.
The Service Workers Worldwide Union (SEIU), which represents almost 2 million members in the USA and Canada, is launching digital adverts and projections on buildings in Washington, D.C., and different cities, based on particulars of the marketing campaign shared first with The Hill.
One advert reads, “We Struggle Collectively: Free unjustly detained union members,” and options a picture of Ozturk, a Turkish nationwide whose case has drawn nationwide consideration after a video confirmed her being arrested on the road by plain-clothes federal officers and brought away in an unmarked van. Ozturk is a member of SEIU Native 509.
A second advert shared with The Hill reads, “Free Speech. Free Staff. Staff are rising as much as defend our 1st Modification rights.”
The adverts are being deployed on the identical day that the SEIU is holding rallies in a number of cities to push again in opposition to what the labor union known as an “ongoing assault on the first Modification” and to demand the discharge of Ozturk and Lewelyn Dixon, a union member who has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention since February. Rallies are happening Tuesday in New York Metropolis, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle.
Trump administration officers have repeatedly defended the detention of Ozturk and others, arguing these people have been in the USA on visas and the federal government has a proper to revoke their visas.
“Should you apply for a visa to enter the USA and be a scholar, and also you inform us that the explanation you might be coming to the USA isn’t just since you wish to write op-eds however since you wish to take part in actions which might be concerned in doing issues like vandalizing universities, harassing college students, taking on buildings, making a ruckus, we aren’t going to offer you a visa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated.
It’s recognized Ozturk wrote an op-ed for her newspaper defending Palestine final 12 months, however her protest actions or specifics round what actions led to her arrest are unclear.
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