Our work is not done, but we are stronger together.

This week, after tireless advocacy, we welcomed home Rümeysa Öztürk who was unjustly detained for simply exercising her fundamental First Amendment rights.

For simply authoring an op-ed, she was met with the full force of Donald Trump’s authoritarian project — silenced, detained and punished.

Rümeysa should never have been abducted and ripped away from her community in Somerville in the first place.

She should never have had her visa revoked.

She should never have been transported almost 2,000 miles away to an ICE facility in rural Louisiana and subjected to squalid, inhumane conditions.

She should never have suffered multiple asthma attacks and feared for her life so far away from home.

Rümeysa’s experience was not just an act of cruelty. It was a deliberate, coordinated attempt to intimidate, to instill fear, and to send a chilling message to anyone who dares to speak out against injustice.

I’ve said it before, Donald Trump is a dictator. A dictator seeks to silence dissenting voices. He wants a citizenry that is ignorant and uninformed, a citizenry that is indifferent to the suffering of a neighbor, a citizenry that is inactive.

We’re sending a message of our own to this White House: your efforts to silence us, to crush dissent, and to undermine our fundamental rights are being rejected.

This fight is not over. Rümeysa is released on bail, but her deportation proceedings continue.

So while we take stock of this important victory, made possible because of public outcry and the thousands of people who joined us in Congress, the courts, and in community, we are clear-eyed about the work that remains.

To everyone who has stood with Rümeysa, who has spoken out, who has joined in this fight — in Congress, in the courts and in community — thank you.

We would not be here today if it weren’t for you. Our work is not done, but we are stronger together.

Ayanna