In response to the Trump administration’s chilling actions to curtail free speech, working people organizing with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) took to the streets on Tuesday, rallying from coast-to-coast to condemn the administration’s attacks on the First Amendment and demand the immediate release of SEIU members unjustly detained by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
SEIU told Caribbean Life on Tuesday that Fulbright Scholar, Tufts Ph. D student in Child Study and Human Development, and SEIU Local 509 member Rumeysa Ozturk was arrested in Boston last week.
SEIU also said University of Washington Lab technician, legal green card holder, and SEIU Local 925 member Lewelyn Dixon was arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in late February. Both remain in ICE detention.
By midday Tuesday, SEIU said workers were in motion in Charleston, W. Va.; New York City; Washington D.C.; Fairfax, Va.; Texas and beyond – chanting “Free speech, free workers!” and holding signs blaring “Free Rumeysa” and “Workers will not be silenced.”
At the same time, SEIU launched a six-figure ad campaign Tuesday featuring digital ads and projections on buildings in Washington D.C. and elsewhere defending free speech, blaring “We Fight Together: Free unjustly detained union members,” and “Free Speech. Free Workers. Workers are rising up to defend our 1st Amendment rights.”
As working people across the country raised their voices on social media to exercise their First Amendment rights, SEIU members and allies – including Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) – flooded social media with messages of solidarity and videos reading the full text of the First Amendment using #4the1st.
“Solidarity is about standing together and taking action,” said SEIU International President April Verrett in a video she posted on X. “It’s about saying an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us. This administration is just getting started.
“So, we have to stand together, united to stand up for our members, for our community, for our people, for the values of our country,” she added.
Verrett said workers and allies will continue holding actions from coast to coast.
SEIU said Rumeysa Ozturk was “deliberately ambushed” last week by masked, plainclothes ICE agents as she was walking on a public street.
Surveillance video shows the officers surrounding and restraining her before taking her away. She remains in ICE detention, SEIU said.
It also said Lewelyn Dixon was arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Feb. 28 after returning from a trip abroad.
SEIU said she is a legal green card holder who has lawfully resided in the U.S. for 50 years. She remains in ICE detention.
“Detentions like these are not isolated incidents. They come amid a wave of Trump administration actions targeting green card holders and other immigrants with lawful status across the nation,” Verrett said.
“These attacks on immigrant workers is a furtherance of the administration’s unprecedented attack on workers and their unions.
