Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Somerville, Mass. on Tuesday night. A Turkish national and Fulbright scholar, Öztürk had co-authored an op-ed for The Tufts Daily a year ago on the university’s response to the war in Gaza. The Tufts administration had no knowledge of the arrest before it happened.

As we witness the detainment of a fellow NESCAC student, we express empathy. Just a few days ago, Öztürk was just outside of Tufts’ campus on her way to an interfaith community center to break her Ramadan fast. Now, she is detained in Louisiana as she awaits a more definitive answer about what her future in U.S. higher education looks like. While watching Öztürk’s story unfold, we are experiencing a whirlwind of emotions.

We are alarmed that this incident did not happen in isolation. Öztürk’s detainment is just one moment in a sweeping wave of the Trump administration’s attacks on international students and higher education institutions. This includes the deportation of a Brown University professor, who held an H-1B visa, and the detainment of graduate student and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Washington Post that the number of student visas the office has revoked “might be more than 300 at this point.”

Öztürk is pursuing a doctorate in child study and human development. It is heartbreaking to see a bright young scholar punished for exercising her freedom of speech, which is protected under an F-1 visa.

The Department of Homeland Security claims Ozturk took part in activities expressing support for Hamas that led to the termination of her visa, but according to Öztürk’s friends and family, her only known political engagement was co-authoring the op-ed that called for Tufts to break financial ties with Israel. The detainment and pending deportation of an individual for expressing their political views is a clear violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.

We are scared that if something like this could happen at Tufts, it can happen at Bowdoin. This detainment happened just a two-hour drive from Bowdoin at a fellow NESCAC institution that similarly prides itself on a liberal arts education. The incident is a reminder that Bowdoin is not isolated from the rest of the country. How do we prepare, and how do we process?

While we have many questions, one thing is clear: Now more than ever, it is important that we recognize our responsibility to protect student and faculty visa holders and their freedom of expression at Bowdoin, as a college and as a community. We stand in solidarity with the Tufts community, and we stand in solidarity with all who may be hurting and scared because of this event.

These are times when the sheer number of questions overwhelms the possibility of answers. Uncertainty not only surrounds what is happening with the detainments and deportations but also what steps we should take in the face of these obstacles. It is crucial to acknowledge that these questions exist—that such uncertainty, such fear, such worry exist—and that they are valid. It is only transparency and communication that can reassure students, staff and faculty alike. Even though the answers may not be clear, we must, as a community, fight hard to find them.

We share a commitment to the liberal arts, upholding higher education and freedom of speech. We stand in solidarity with Öztürk.

This editorial represents the majority opinion of the Editorial Board, which is composed of Julia Dickinson, Catalina Escobedo, Kaya Patel, Claire Shim, Lily Wheadon, Kristen Kinzler and Vaughn Vial.

Editor’s Note on March 28 at 5 p.m.: An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that Mahmoud Khalil holds a F-1 visa. He holds a green card.