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The most dangerous response to authoritarianism is self-silencing. I refuse to retreat into it — and Harvard should not either.

Five Harvard students and recent graduates have had their student visas revoked in recent days. International students on campuses across the country are scared of speaking out against the Trump administration, criticizing the war in Gaza, or voicing any opinion that might upset the MAGA crowd. We are afraid to participate in protests, pen op-eds, and conduct certain academic research.

The breakdown of democracy is no longer a case study of some country far away in a Government class. Its consequences are being felt right at the heart of our community.

In the face of this authoritarian assault, Harvard is failing to stand up for us.

Just a neighborhood away, Rumeysa Ozturk was arrested by masked federal agents on the way to break her Ramadan fast two weeks ago. The video of her arrest, taken just before she was sent off to a detention center in Louisiana, is chilling — which is exactly the point. Like any authoritarian regime, the Trump administration has made an example out of students like Ozturk in the hopes of scaring the rest of us.

It is dangerously effective. Fellow international students I have spoken with over the past few days have all shared hesitations about speaking out because of fears of deportation. For those who came to seek a better life in the United States via Harvard, a revoked visa could have detrimental career and life consequences.

When people stop expressing their opinions in public because of fear of governmental repression, freedom of speech has gone out the window. The U.S. is no longer a full democracy, but that does not mean that it cannot get worse from here. President Donald Trump has been in office for less than 80 days; he has about 1,400 days left. Deporting people without a court hearing opens up the possibility for the Trump administration to do the same to American citizens. After all, without due process, an individual cannot prove whether they are a citizen.

How much worse things get from here largely depends on our collective societal response. If we do not stand up to Trump now, we allow him to push the boundaries of governmental repression even further.

At Harvard, the response to this assault on democracy and members of our own community has been to kiss the ring. University President Alan M. Garber ’76 has yet to condemn — or even say anything publicly about — the recent wave of revoked of visas. In the case that students are deported, it’s not obvious that the University will help them to graduate, even if they have to do so over Zoom. My peers and I are unsure if Harvard will provide full legal representation to students who face detention and deportation or have their visas revoked.

Instead, through its words and actions, Harvard has tried to appease Trump by accepting a politicized narrative of antisemitism — rather than genuinely working to combat it — firing professors from leadership positions, and suspending certain academic programs and partnerships.

Granted, any single college or university will have a tough time facing the federal government alone. Collectively, however, the top institutions in this country boast endowments worth hundreds of billions of dollars, have access to the best lawyers, and conduct research that the government depends on. No other university is better positioned to spearhead such a collective response than Harvard. But if we continue to fold to Trump, others will surely follow. Our actions will set a dangerous precedent for the entire country.

As an international student, I am well aware that the opinions I express carry a certain degree of risk. Still, I refuse to remain silent. Citizens or not, we all have agency over the direction this country takes.

I have a small voice compared to that of the university I study at. At this moment, we need Harvard to be a leader on behalf of all of us who feel threatened. It is time for Harvard to both stand up for its international students and for the ideals of academic freedom and democracy it claims to represent.

Leo Gerdén ’25 is an Economics and Government concentrator in Mather House and an international student from Sweden.