I may not like what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it… on the revocation of Rutgers Student Visas for Palestine Advocacy

We are living in very dangerous times. I don’t think I’m saying anything most readers of fightbackbetter.com don’t already know. But what happened this past weekend to about a dozen students at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and perhaps 100s more around the country, are more examples of this danger.

According to the New Jersey Spotlight article by Briana Vannozzi, Anchor on April 9, 2025, apparently a little less than a dozen international students at Rutgers saw their visas revoked this past weekend, without explanation! All of those students were in good standing, too.

This was all kept relatively quiet, though Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, sent a letter to the Rutgers community that this had transpired. No explanation was given for why this happened.

From Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway:

We Support Our International Community at Rutgers | Rutgers University

The Rutgers University President pledged the university’s support to international students at Rutgers. He indicated in the letter how the Rutgers community benefits from the diversity of its student body. He also wrote about how all students in this situation will be given legal assistance and support.

The article also reports that the Trump administration has reportedly revoked hundreds of international student visas at various colleges and universities across the country. Some students were forced to leave the U.S. immediately.   

Clearly, these are very disturbing developments. Coupled with some of the other brief announcements we received in the past week, many people are now living on the edge in the U.S., afraid of what might happen tomorrow. When constitutional lines are crossed and obliterated, when the society/community accepts these violations of constitutional protections, almost no one is safe, even those who are full and long-time citizens of the U.S.

When the federal government is allowed to monitor our social media accounts, looking for content they deem is “dangerous to national security interests,” how long will it be before everyone’s social media accounts are monitored? In fact, they probably already are.

In the opinion of many, these violations of constitutional protections are more detrimental to national security than honoring our first amendment rights, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, the freedom of religion and the right to petition for a redress of grievances. As my late father once said,”The first amendment is in place for a reason. We will not always agree with one another, but we should start from a place where we respect our differences.” He went on to say that in fighting for other people’s rights to express themselves, we are also fighting for ourselves.

This shouldn’t be a left or right issue. True conservatives should join the call to protect first amendment rights and should speak out against the erosion of those rights.

When the U.S. government goes after college students who are against the genocide of thousands of Palestinians and punishes them for taking that position, the country and the world are in serious trouble. We need Palestine to be free for us all to be free.

We all need to take protection of our fundamental, constitutional rights seriously, not only for ourselves, but for everyone living in the U.S and around the world.