Latest / NO FILTER / _Sheer uncertainty and panic__ Harvard student body co-president on Trump admin. attacks(M4A_128K)

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_Sheer uncertainty and panic__ Harvard student body co-president on Trump admin. attacks(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Donald Trump's crackdown on Harvard University is leaving its
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: students with whiplash. A judge ruled Friday to temporarily halt
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the ban on Harvard's international student enrollment, but the Trump
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: administration's announcement this week sends students into a panic. One
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: incoming freshman called the news a heart drop moment. Even
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: with the pause on the band, students face this uncertain future.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Do they transfer, do they stay in risk losing their
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: legal status? Will anyone move they make outside their home
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: country put them in danger of detainment. Abdellah Shahid Sial
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  Speaker 1: is Harvard's Undergraduate student Body co president. He's also an
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  Speaker 1: international student himself from Pakistan. Abella is dealing with all
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: this while he's in Japan for a conference, and he
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: joins us, now, good morning to you, good evening your time.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: But let's start here. You're in Japan and you've been
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  Speaker 1: outspoken against some of the decisions of this administration. There's
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a seventy two hour deadline for Harvard to hand over
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  Speaker 1: five years of international student records if they want to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: regain access to the Student Exchange Visa program certification That
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: ends at noon tomorrow. How confident are you that you'll
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: be able to get back into the US.
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  Speaker 2: First of all, thank you so much for having me. Secondly,
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  Speaker 2: I just want to make it very very clear that
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  Speaker 2: from our side, this choice which is presented to Harvard
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  Speaker 2: is less of a choice and more of an illusion.
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  Speaker 2: What I mean by that is the Trump ad musician
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  Speaker 2: wants us to think as if Harvard can get out
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  Speaker 2: of the situation by giving in all the names, when
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  Speaker 2: that never really was their motive to begin with. They
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  Speaker 2: began with a bunch of different attacks, and their entire
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: end goal is just to make the Harvard administration, that
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: probably the most prestigious university in the entire world, to
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  Speaker 2: bend to the Trump administration as well. And if they're
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: using the threat of kicking out international students right now
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: to make sure that Harvard complies tomorrow, they can wake
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  Speaker 2: up and use the same threat again and again to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that now. If right now they're asking us
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  Speaker 2: to send records of discipline records, discipline records tomorrow, they
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: can wake up and you know, be like, Okay, can
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: you kick out this professor or can you kick out
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  Speaker 2: this researcher who has a sort of a left leaning
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  Speaker 2: strands on certain issues. So I want to make it
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  Speaker 2: very clear that this isn't a choice, it's it's it's
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  Speaker 2: the Trump administration forcing Harvard to bend to its will,
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  Speaker 2: and international students are just a very small part of
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  Speaker 2: the tools they're using to push Harvard to bend to
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  Speaker 2: their will.
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  Speaker 1: And So to the initial question, are you sure you'll
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: be able to get back into the country.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure at all. I'm not sure if I'll
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  Speaker 2: be if I fly to tomorrow, if I'll be Latin,
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  Speaker 2: or even if i'm i will be able to stay
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  Speaker 2: in the US legally. So as of right now, I'm
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  Speaker 2: not sure if I can attend the next semester or not.
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  Speaker 1: M And so, what is the decision process you're working
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: through now? I've read a reporter on the blockage of
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: this ban on international students, but still things can change.
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  Speaker 1: What are you navigating right now? How will you make
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  Speaker 1: the decision?
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  Speaker 2: I think right now the biggest concent in everyone's heads is
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  Speaker 2: how to reduce this year on satety and panic, which
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: everyone is facing. What I mean by that is that
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  Speaker 2: so many friends who are right now in the US
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: or the summer engage in like reterternships or are being researched
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  Speaker 2: on campus, and they're not sure if they can fly domestically.
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  Speaker 2: They're not sure if they have a flight back home
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  Speaker 2: to check in with they should be taking that on.
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  Speaker 2: My friends who have to fly back for the summer
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  Speaker 2: because again, perhaps they will have a project within the US,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: they're not sure if they should be taking the flight
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  Speaker 2: because they might be deep in the airport and obviously
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: getting detailed when they're eighteen, nineteen and twenty years. Well,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: that's it's a very very frightening endeavor. So as a
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  Speaker 2: fright now, I've only been having all these cons I've
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  Speaker 2: been having this conversation with my friends and that years
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  Speaker 2: and these are almost seven thousand in number, and they
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  Speaker 2: also happen to present the absolute best in their own
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  Speaker 2: respective countries, and they're as of now being treated in
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  Speaker 2: a very dehumanized and in a very de meaning manner.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, no one knows what's happening, and navigating that
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  Speaker 2: is a pretty tough time.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you told one of my producers that
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  Speaker 1: you've even written an op ed to be published in
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  Speaker 1: The Crimson if you are detained. The detainment we've seen
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: thus far have been related to protests related to Israel's
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  Speaker 1: war with Hamas and the conditions in Gaza, Romesa oz
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  Speaker 1: Turk and Makmud Khalil. Do you believe that there could
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: also be this detainment of you for speaking out against
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  Speaker 1: this conflict between the US between the administration at Harvard.
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  Speaker 2: That's precisely why I've written this opened and the entire
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  Speaker 2: thesis of it is if you search up my name
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  Speaker 2: right now, you wouldn't find my name attached next to
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  Speaker 2: any all right.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously having a technical issue, Abella was joining us from Kyoto, Japan,
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  Speaker 1: so unfortunately we have lost his signal. But thanks to
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Abella Shahidsial, the co president of the student body there
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  Speaker 1: at Harvard.
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  Speaker 3: Joining me right now to talk more about these developments
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  Speaker 3: is Laurence Tribe. He is a university professor of Constitutional
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  Speaker 3: law emeritus at Harvard Law School. Professor Tribe, great.
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  Speaker 4: To see you, Great to see you for brig.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I wonder are you as perplexed as the Wesleyan
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  Speaker 3: President Roth about the White House's goals or motivevation here?
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  Speaker 4: I'm not perplexed at all. I agree very much with
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  Speaker 4: President Roth that the President's claim President Trump's claim that
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: he's fighting anti semitism is bogus. Of course, anti Semitism
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  Speaker 4: is real. It's pervasive, but Harvard is doing its part
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  Speaker 4: in fighting it. The President is just using his anti
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  Speaker 4: anti semitism trope as a fig leaf for doing what
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  Speaker 4: he wants, and what he wants is to bring everyone
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  Speaker 4: to heal to prove that he doesn't need the law
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  Speaker 4: behind him in order to crush individuals you heard, those
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  Speaker 4: poor students who don't know what their fate is going
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  Speaker 4: to be, and to crush universities, especially Harvard, as the
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  Speaker 4: sort of the emblem of intellectual excellence. The fact is
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  Speaker 4: that these students have reason to fear. I have absolutely
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: no doubt that Harvard will win a permanent injunction against
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  Speaker 4: this lawless action. I've looked at the law. There's no
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  Speaker 4: basis for it. But the fact that people keep winning
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: in court against the Trump administration doesn't prevent it from
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  Speaker 4: inducing fear throughout the country. If you look at the
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  Speaker 4: cases in which the Trump administration has been involved in
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  Speaker 4: the month of May, it has lost more than ninety
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  Speaker 4: five percent of them. But that doesn't stop them. It's
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  Speaker 4: a catch me if you can approach that is, even
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  Speaker 4: though these students are going to win, and Harvard is
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: going to win. In the meantime, they have no basis
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  Speaker 4: other than the prediction of legal experts like me and
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  Speaker 4: the opinions of courts about what the law is. But
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: they know that we now have a president who doesn't
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  Speaker 4: frankly care at all about the law. He's made it
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  Speaker 4: clear he simply wants people to bend the knee, and
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  Speaker 4: those who do, those who cowtow and kiss the ring,
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  Speaker 4: live to regret it because you can't make a deal
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  Speaker 4: with a monstrous tyrant. He won't keep his side of
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  Speaker 4: the bargain. So what we are confronting, I'm afraid, is
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  Speaker 4: a long reign of terror, and it's a rain that
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  Speaker 4: can be interrupted by judicial decisions but cannot be entirely stopped.
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  Speaker 3: So then to follow up on, while you do believe
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  Speaker 3: Harvard has merit to win in court even if the
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: Trump administration loses, you are also consequently saying it wins
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  Speaker 3: because it is invoking fear and we're hearing it from students.
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  Speaker 3: And even with this, as you put it, this continued
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  Speaker 3: reign of terror, what is your concern about how it
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  Speaker 3: will impact the student body, the institutions of learning, the
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  Speaker 3: pursuit of excellence.
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  Speaker 4: It compromises them profoundly. At Harvard, we have a quarter
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: of the students who are from abroad. They are the
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  Speaker 4: very core of the intellectual enterprise. They enliven everything for everybody.
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  Speaker 4: They are among the people who make the key discoveries
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  Speaker 4: that help cure disease and that help improve our productivity.
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  Speaker 4: With them gone, Harvard has a much more difficult time
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  Speaker 4: achieving its purposes, and those are the purposes of the nation.
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  Speaker 4: Once he's done it to Harvard, he can do it
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  Speaker 4: to anybody, and if he brings everyone down, he's essentially
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  Speaker 4: ruining the country. There is no rational reason for any
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  Speaker 4: any of these policies other than to prove to the
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  Speaker 4: world that he is boss of everyone. That's a dangerous
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  Speaker 4: place to be. It's not a place that our legal
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  Speaker 4: system tolerates, but it's not a place that the law
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  Speaker 4: can easily catch up with.
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  Speaker 3: Harvard University Professor Lawrence Tribe a pleasure talking to you.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for being with us today.