Being an international student in the United States means receiving a lot of noes.

No, I can’t work off campus without receiving academic credit or filing a petition with the government.

No, I can’t apply for that internship because it doesn’t accept students who need work authorization.

No, I can’t work more than 20 hours a week.

My biggest pet peeve was finding my dream position and reading “must be a US citizen” in the requirements section.

Luckily for me, the Daily Bruin had no such requirement.

Years of being scolded for being “too opinionated” led me to apply to the Opinion section in the fall of my sophomore year.

After hours of training and dragging my feet to meet the news requirement, I could write about anything my heart desired.

However, when the Palestine solidarity encampment happened in 2024, I quickly understood that the restrictions of being an international student reached far beyond work authorization problems.

The different standards for international students became clear to me, as we were advised not to participate in protests or post advocacy content on social media.

For the first time, I felt my identity as an opinionated international student was a flaw.

So, I decided to keep quiet in fear of jeopardizing my status.

What might have felt like a hypercautious attitude in April 2024 was validated less than a year later.

One of the first measures of the second Trump administration was to target international students who had shown support for the nationwide pro-Palestine encampments the year before.

Immigration officers detained Rumeysa Öztürk, an international student from Tufts University, in March 2025 – a year after she cowrote an op-ed criticizing her university’s response to a student group’s call for divestment.

At the time, I had just started writing an opinion article criticizing UCLA’s Time, Place and Manner policies, which the university implemented in the aftermath of the encampments to further restrict student and faculty’s public expression on campus.

Öztürk’s arrest and visa revocation made me hesitate.

Should I tone down my article or maybe even toss it? I felt like the line between an international student exercising free speech and plotting against the government had been blurred beyond comprehension.

The thought of suffering the same consequences as Ozturk scared me.

Still, something that Abigail Goldman, the Daily Bruin’s editorial advisor, said during my orientation tugged at me: a journalist must write without fear of consequences.

Although I wish I could be as fearless of a journalist as Abbe and other Daily Bruin writers, I have to say I was still scared.

But I published it anyway, without changing anything.

Not because of a sudden peak of courage, but because I valued the space the Daily Bruin had given me too much not to use it.

Throughout the last three years, the Daily Bruin made me feel like my voice mattered when I felt restricted by my status as an international student.

And for that I will forever be grateful.

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Martins was an opinion columnist 2023-2026; and a News contributor 2023-2024.