homeland

After decades of armed struggle, fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are withdrawing from Turkiye and moving to northern Iraq.

The conflict between the PKK and Turkish forces has killed more than 40,000 people in four decades.

The withdrawal is the latest step in an agreement with the Turkish state, which the group says will see it shift from armed rebellion to democratic politics.

So, will Ankara stick to its end of the bargain and allow the PKK to engage in civil society?

And is Kurdish autonomy now just a pipe dream?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Hiwa Osman – former adviser to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani

Mohammed D Salih – non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Hisyar Ozsoy – former deputy chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)

In the mirror I’m wearing enormous golden pantaloons, but only I can see them. Children sit in a rock pool playing mermaids, and in the next room there’s a talking pea in a display case, beside a towering stack of mattresses. It’s the world of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), one of the 19th century’s most beloved writers. I’m in Odense, on the island of Fyn (sometimes anglicised to Funen) in the south of Denmark, to explore Andersen’s enduring legacy in his home town 150 years after his death, and to discover a few fairytales of my own.

HC Andersens Hus is the city’s museum dedicated to the writer, incorporating his first home. Niels Bjørn Friis from Museum Odense says that in earlier iterations of the museum there was little focus on Andersen’s stories. The writer’s life was explored, but The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina and The Little Mermaid were nowhere to be found. For visitors who come to Odense seeking storytelling magic, it was a little lacking.

The redesign of Odense city centre, rerouting a major road, provided the opportunity to reimagine how the city’s most famous son could be honoured. A major architecture competition awarded Japanese firm Kengo Kuma and Associates the contract, with the curators’ new approach at the core of the design. The distinctive timber-clad museum with interlinked spiralling spaces opened to great fanfare in 2021. “We’ve tried to create a space where we don’t talk about Andersen, but we talk like Andersen: with humour, irony and perspective,” says Friis. Even the gardens take this approach: “It’s a garden for wanderers and for giants, it’s designed to make you feel small,” he says, a challenge achieved by clever planting, playing with height, scale and many winding paths in a deceptively small space.

Andersen wrote two and a half autobiographies and frequently contradicted himself. HC Andersens Hus takes this approach to heart; often the views of his friends or snippets of letters are presented to gently question the author’s own version of events. “Andersen is the guide, but he’s not reliable,” says Friis. The result is a compelling whirlwind tour of Andersen’s life and art, thought processes and best-loved stories. It’s provocative and playful, for adults and children, with a bonus basement make-believe land, Ville Vau, for the youngest visitors.

Back in the real world, the small city of Odense is charming, with cobbled streets and old wooden houses painted in bright colours. The Andersen legacy is everywhere: the traffic lights feature the writer with his signature top hat, brass footprints provide a free Andersen walking tour, and there’s a sculpture trail too. Every August this dedication peaks with the annual HC Andersen festival, which celebrates the author’s legacy through art, dance, theatre and music.

This year, the week-long festival had 500 shows, most of which were free. As I explore Odense, I meet painted stilt-walkers, ghoulish monsters and an Andersen lookalike telling stories. I hear feminist spoken-word pieces and see an incredible late-night performance featuring acrobatic dancers descending from the town hall and hanging from a crane. Still to come this year are lectures, family art workshops and, expanding the storytelling legacy beyond Andersen, the city’s annual Magic Days festival.

As in most of Denmark, bikes are the best way to get about in Odense and a “cycling highway” winds through the city centre. From Hotel Odeon, I cycle to the free harbour-side swimming pool, then out of town for a loop around Stige Ø, a small island connected by causeway to the mainland. City residents picnic here after work, or enjoy a quiet hour fishing, paddleboarding or swimming.

Back in Odense, I eat at Restaurant Under Lindetræet, where the menu is inspired by Andersen themes and stories. The poem Denmark, My Native Land is featured when I visit, and proprietor Nils Palmqvist reads extracts, translated into English, as he presents each course. It’s an experience repeated often in my days in the city, the fynbo (as residents of Fyn are known) love a yarn and it feels as though storytelling is always on the menu here.

All good fairytale destinations need a castle, and Fyn boasts 123 castles and manor houses across the island. Taking day trips from Odense, I visit Egeskov Castle, Europe’s best-preserved Renaissance water castle. While much of it is open to visitors, Egeskov is also the family home of Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille and his wife, Princess Alexandra zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. I wonder if she can feel a pea through a stack of mattresses. The couple are often found in the vast landscaped gardens and play park chatting to visitors.

At Valdemars Castle to the south of Fyn, I meet Louise Iuel-Brockdorff Albinus, the current owner of Valdemars Castle built between 1639 and 1644 by King Christian IV. After a family inheritance dispute that emptied the castle contents, Albinus decided to open her home to visitors and filled it with art, inviting international artists to create site-specific pieces. The juxtaposition of the high cornices and fine wallpapers with Czech artist Jiří Georg Dokoupil’s huge balloon-like sculptures and colourful bubble paintings would no doubt have amused Hans Christian Andersen, who loved to challenge expectations.

From Valdemars Castle, I catch the MS Helge, a wooden ferry built in 1924, which transports passengers around the South Fyn archipelago. This beautiful coastline was last year designated a Unesco Global Geopark for its unique “drowned” ice age landscape. I disembark in Svendborg and rent a bike from South Funen Bicycle Rental. I’m cycling today with Mette Mathiasen from Destination Fyn, who is behind the development of the 410-mile (660km) castles route around Fyn. It’s divided into 14 sections, with local operators offering luggage transfer. We’re exploring a 21-mile section, along the coast to the village of Åbyskov and Elsehoved beach. We pass turreted castles, manors and long stretches of quiet coastline, pedalling along country lanes with hedgerows overflowing with blackberries. Unlike most of Denmark, there are some hills in the south of Fyn, but with quiet trails and the option of an ebike, this is gentle, all-abilities cycling.

As dusk falls, I pedal across the moat to my last castle of the day and my final destination on Fyn – Broholm Castle. Broholm has 700 years of colourful history and plenty of ghost stories, and was a frequent haunt of Andersen, featuring in his 1837 novel Only a Fiddler. From a childhood of poverty to international acclaim, Andersen’s life was quite the adventure. Following in his footsteps on Fyn has been full of castles and colourful characters, with a few surprises too.

The trip was provided by Visit Denmark and Destination Fyn. Hotel Odeon has doubles from 1,100 kroner (£128) B&B. Broholm Castle has doubles from 1,695 kroner B&B

Oct. 1 (UPI) — Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will attend the Super Bowl’s halftime show featuring Bad Bunny.

Lewandowski, 52, appeared on “The Benny Show” podcast on Wednesday when he made his claim about ICE at the Super Bowl, according to The Hill.

“There is nowhere that you can provide a safe haven to the people in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said in response to a question from podcast host Benny Johnson.

“We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you,” he claimed.

Lewandowski was President Donald Trump‘s campaign manager in 2016 and a senior adviser in 2020 and 2024.

The Super Bowl is the only U.S. performance scheduled so far in 2026 for Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, who is from Puerto Rico and has won three Grammy Awards.

The popular rapper last month said he was skipping performing in the United States due to his fear that ICE would raid his concert venues, Variety reported.

Bad Bunny on Sunday affirmed he is skipping dates in the United States, other than the Super Bowl, next year, according to Billboard.

“I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States,” he posted on X.

The popular rapper has a world tour scheduled from December through July, but said concerns that ICE might show up at U.S. shows caused him to skip performing here.

The Super Bowl is scheduled at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8.

“The dawn of freedom will emerge, and the flag of Palestine will fly high in our skies.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was applauded by the UN General Assembly after he vowed Palestinians will not leave their homeland.

CHICAGO — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man who officials said tried to evade arrest Friday in a Chicago suburb by driving his car at officers and dragging one of them.

The shooting just outside the city follows days of threats by the Trump administration to surge immigration enforcement in the nation’s third-largest city and less than a week into an operation labeled “Midway Blitz” by federal officials targeting the so-called sanctuary policies in Chicago and Illinois.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that the officer was trying to arrest a man who had a history of reckless driving, but he refused officers’ orders and instead drove his car at them. An ICE officer who was hit and dragged by the car felt his life was threatened and opened fire, the department said.

ICE said both the officer and the driver from the shooting in the Franklin Park suburb, about 18 miles west of Chicago, were taken to a hospital, where the driver was pronounced dead.

“We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer. He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement,” said spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said he is aware of the shooting and demanded “a full, factual accounting of what’s happened today to ensure transparency and accountability.”

Video from the scene shows police tape and traffic cones blocking off parts of the street where a large food distribution truck and gray car can be seen from a distance. Multiple law enforcement vehicles were surrounding the area.

Erendira Rendón, chief program officer at a local advocacy group called the Resurrection Project, said the shooting “shows us the real danger that militarized enforcement creates in our neighborhoods.”

“A community member is dead, and an officer was injured,” Rendón said in a statement. “These are outcomes that serve no public safety purpose and leave entire communities traumatized. … When federal agents conduct unaccountable operations in our communities, everyone becomes less safe.”

Chicagoans, meanwhile, have been preparing for weekend Mexican Independence Day celebrations that include parades, festivals, street parties and car caravans, despite the potential immigration crackdown.

McLaughlin said that “viral social media videos and activists encouraging illegal aliens to resist law enforcement” have made the work of ICE officers more dangerous.

Santana and Fernando write for the Associated Press. Santana reported from Washington.

The new Netflix limited series is already being described as a perfect binge

Netflix fans are already cancelling all their plans in anticipation for a new eight part thriller that looks perfect for Harlan Coben fans.

The streaming giant have revealed the first in depth look at one of its upcoming limited series. Landing on the platform later this year, The Beast in Me will be released on November 13.

First details about the show have been released with it reported to come from some of the same creative team behind hit series Homeland. In fact, one of the stars of the spy thriller series will also lead Beast In Me, with Claire Danes taking on a prominent role.

She will be joined by the star of the Perry Mason revival, as well as The Americans and Brothers & Sisters in Welsh actor Matthew Rhys. Also in the cast will be Brittany Snow from The Hunting Wives and The Walking Dead Dead City’s Natalie Morales.

According to the show’s synopsis, since the tragic death of her young son, acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs (Danes) has receded from public life, unable to write. She has become a ghost of her former self.

But she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Jarvis (Rhys), a famed and formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. At once horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth.

She begins to chase down his demons while fleeing her own in a game of cat and mouse that might turn deadly. The show asks who’s the real monster? And who’s the bad neighbour?

Not much more details about the story are known with Netflix keeping any twists under wraps. With promises of plenty of secrets to unravel it gives the feel of a Harlan Coben story and should be perfect for fans of the writer’s adaptations.

The showrunner has been named as Howard Gordon who previously helped develop the show Homeland and 24. Beast In Me is created by author and screenwriter Gabe Rotter who has written episodes of The X Files.

Fans have already started to share their excitement for the series release and are planning accordingly. Responding to the news on social media, one commented: “Looks like November 13 is officially ‘cancel all plans’ day.”

Another added: “Secrets, suspense, and stellar cast, this series is already giving chills before it even drops.” While a third posted: “This sounds like the perfect binge for a cold November night.”

Someone else simply declared: “I was sold when I read ‘Homeland’ one of the best series to exist.”

The showrunner hasn’t shared too many details as yet but they did comment on their excitement of reuniting with Danes after Homeland, and pairing her with Rhys.

He said: “I’ve always appreciated Matthew (Rhys)’s work, but seeing him with Claire on our first Zoom made me especially excited that he’s agreed to play Nile. We’re all looking forward to working with him!”

The Beast In Me is streaming on Netflix from November 13.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the deportation of several immigrants who were put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan, a war-ravaged country where they have no ties.

The decision comes after the court’s conservative majority found that immigration officials can quickly deport people to third countries. The majority halted an order that had allowed immigrants to challenge any removals to countries outside their homeland where they could be in danger.

The court’s latest order makes clear that the South Sudan flight detoured to a naval base in Djibouti weeks ago can now complete the trip. It reverses findings from federal Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts, who said his order on those migrants still stands even after the high court lifted his broader decision.

The majority wrote that their decision on June 23 completely halted Murphy’s ruling and also rendered his decision on the South Sudan flight “unenforceable.” The court did not fully detail its legal reasoning on the underlying case, as is common on its emergency docket.

Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, saying the ruling gives the government special treatment. “Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial,” Sotomayor wrote.

Attorneys for the eight migrants have said they could face “imprisonment, torture and even death” if sent to South Sudan, where escalating political tensions have threatened to devolve into another civil war.

“We know they’ll face perilous conditions, and potentially immediate detention, upon arrival,” Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said Thursday.

The push comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by Trump’s Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The Trump administration has called Murphy’s finding “a lawless act of defiance.”

The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Authorities have reached agreements with other countries to house immigrants if authorities can’t quickly send them back to their homelands. The eight men sent to South Sudan in May had been convicted of serious crimes in the U.S.

Murphy, who was nominated by Democratic President Biden, didn’t prohibit deportations to third countries. But he found migrants must have a real chance to argue they could be in danger of torture if sent to another country.

The men have been held in a converted shipping container on the naval base in Djibouti since Murphy found the administration had violated his order by failing to allow them a chance to challenge the removal to South Sudan. They have since expressed a fear of being sent there, Realmuto said.

Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press.

WOLVES face a potential fight to keep hold of boss Vitor Pereira – with Portuguese giants Benfica eyeing a move for the Molineux boss to replace one of his predecessors.

Benfica are currently in the USA for the Club World Cup, amid rumours over the long-term future of manager Bruno Lage.

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And if the Lisbon Eagles flop in the States, club President – and former Portugal midfielder – Rui Costa is ready to test Wolves’ resolve to keep Pereira after his impressive first six months at the club.

Pereira has seen the club sell both full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri and playmaker Matheus Cunha this summer, with the two Manchester Clubs paying £94.7m between them for the duo.

That came after he had stabilised the club following his arrival in place of Gary O’Neil in December.

Beer-loving Pereira, 59, steered Wolves away from the drop zone to win 10 of his 22 games in charge including a seven-match winning run in March and April that secured their Premier League status.

But the prospect of a return to his homeland – with Benfica facing two Champions League qualifying rounds in August – could tempt the former Porto and Olympiacos chief.

Pereira has not coached in Portugal since quitting Porto for Saudi side Al Ahli after leading them to the title in 2013.

His stock is high with claims that Rui Costa is not happy with Lage – despite official insistence that the coach will start next season at the Stadium of Light irrespective of what happens at the Club World Cup.

Benfica face Argentines Boca Juniors, Kiwi minnows Auckland City and Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich in the group stage, with Lage under scrutiny.

Lage, 49, and now in his second spell at Benfica, spent 15 months at the Molineux helm after replacing Nuno Espirito Santos in June 2021.

While they finished 10th in his first season – having been in the top six after 13 games – Wolves scored just 38 goals in the Prem campaign, with just two points from their final seven matches.

He was sacked in October 2022 after picking up a solitary win from the club’s first nine games before landing a job at Brazilian side Botofogo the following summer.

Lage then became embroiled in a legal spat with Botofogo owner John Textor, whose stake in Crystal Palace has threatened their chances of taking up their place in the Europa League.

Earlier this year, Lage – who returned to Benfica in September – launched a £6m suit claiming he had been promised in a “gentleman’s agreement” that he would be offered the Palace job that was given to Oliver Glasner.

While Benfica beating Sporting Lisbon on penalties to win the Portuguese League Cup, they finished two points behind their city rivals in the title race.

The Department of Homeland Security’s “sanctuary jurisdiction list” has more holes than the plot for the latest “Mission Impossible” film.

All you need to know about its accuracy is how my native Orange County fared.

The only O.C. city on the list is Huntington Beach — you know, the ‘burb with an all-Republican council that’s suing California for being a sanctuary state, declared itself a “non-sanctuary” community in January and and plans to place a plaque outside the city’s main library with an acrostic “MAGA” message.

Missing from the list? Santa Ana, long synonymous with undocumented immigrants, which declared itself a sanctuary city all the way back in 2016 and has a deportation defense fund for residents.

More laughable errors: Livingston, the first city in the Central Valley to declare itself a sanctuary for immigrants in 2017, isn’t on the list. Yet Santee in San Diego County, so notorious for its racism that people still call it “Klantee,” is.

There’s even Represa. Ever heard of it? Me, neither. Turns out it’s not a city but the name of the post office for two places not exactly known as sanctuaries: Folsom State Prison and California State Prison, Sacramento.

Within hours of his inauguration, Donald Trump signed an executive order tellingly titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” that, among other things, stated that sanctuary jurisdictions should no longer receive federal funds.

But the May 29 list laying out the jurisdictions that are supposedly subject to the penalty was so flawed that it was taken off the Homeland Security website within days. It’s still not back up. The effort seemed cobbled together by someone who typed “sanctuary” and a city’s name into Google and swallowed whatever the AI spat up without even bothering to cross-check with Wikipedia.

Trump’s opponents are already depicting this fiasco as emblematic of an administration that loves to shoot itself in the foot, then put the bloody foot in its mouth. But it’s even worse than that.

The list shows how blinded by fury the Trump administration is about illegal immigration. There is no mistake too big or too small for Trump to forgive, as long as it’s in the name of deportation and border walls. The president’s obsession with tying all of this country’s real and imagined ills to newcomers reminds me of Cato the Elder, the Roman Republic politician famous for allegedly saying “Carthage must be destroyed” at the end of all his speeches, no matter the topic.

That’s why the pushback by politicians against Homeland Security’s big, beautiful boo-boo has been quick — and hilarious.

Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns listens to speakers discuss the city’s plan to make Huntington Beach “a non-sanctuary city for illegal immigration” during a City Council meeting in January

(James Carbone)

Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns appeared on KCAL News to declare that Surf City’s inclusion was “pure negligence” while holding a small white bust of Donald Trump the way a toddler clings to its blankey.

Vista Mayor John Franklin, meanwhile, was on the city council that voted in 2018 to support the Trump administration’s unsuccessful lawsuit against California’s sanctuary state law. He told ABC 10News San Diego that he thought Vista made the list because “another city in the county that bears a similar name to ours … may have, and I haven’t confirmed it yet, adopted a sanctuary policy.”

Dude, say the city’s name: Chula Vista, a far cooler, muy Latino town closer to the U.S.-Mexico border than Vista is. It’s also on the list and isn’t a sanctuary city, either.

On the other end of the political spectrum, Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) told the Voice of OC that he recently advised Santa Ana officials to “keep their head low” and not make a big deal about their sanctuary city status — as if hiding under a desk, like a “Scooby Doo” caper, will somehow save the city from the Trump administration’s haphazard hammer.

Immigration, more than any other part of Trump’s agenda, exemplifies the Silicon Valley cliché of moving fast and breaking things. His administration has deported people by mistake and given the middle finger to judges who order them brought back. Trump officials are now shipping immigrants to countries they have no ties to, and shrugging their shoulders. Immigration agents are trying to apprehend people in places long considered off-limits, like schools and places of worship.

And yet, this still isn’t enough for Trump.

Deportation rates are rising, but still not to the levels seen in some years of the Biden and Obama administrations, and not even close to Operation Wetback, the Eisenhower-era program that deported over a million Mexican nationals. Trump’s deportation dream team — Homeland Security head Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — has berated ICE officials for not doing more to comply with Trump’s wishes.

The sanctuary list embodies all of this. Who cares if the wreckage involves human lives, or the Constitution? The sloppiness is the point. The cruelty is the point.

Homeland Security didn’t answer my request to explain the flaws in its sanctuary jurisdiction list and why it was taken down. Instead, a spokesperson emailed a statement saying “the list is being constantly reviewed and can be changed at any time and will be updated regularly.” The decision whether to include a place, the statement said, “is based on the evaluation of numerous factors.”

Except the truth, it seems.

Let’s laugh at the absurd mistakes while we can. Really, how pendejo can you be to think that Huntington Beach is friendly to undocumented immigrants but Santa Ana isn’t? Let’s laugh while we can, because things are going to get much worse before they get better.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, a state program that provides monthly cash benefits to aged, blind, and disabled non-citizens who are ineligible for Social Security benefits due to their immigration status.

The investigation began in Los Angeles, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles field office issuing a Title 8 subpoena to California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release.

According to the department, the subpoena requests all records from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, the agency that administers the state program, to determine if ineligible immigrants received supplemental security income from the Social Security Administration over the last four years.

“Radical left politicians in California prioritize illegal aliens over our own citizens, including by giving illegal aliens access to cash benefits,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

“The Trump Administration is working together to identify abuse and exploitation of public benefits and make sure those in this country illegally are not receiving federal benefits or other financial incentives to stay illegally,” Noem added. “If you are an illegal immigrant, you should leave now. The gravy train is over. While this subpoena focuses only on Los Angeles County — it is just the beginning.”

According to Homeland Security, its Los Angeles investigations field office is subpoenaing records including applicants’ name and date of birth, copies of applications, immigration status, proof of ineligibility for benefits from the Social Security Administration and affidavits that supported the application.

The investigation comes after President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on April 15 to stop immigrants lacking documentation from obtaining Social Security Act benefits in what he called a bid to stop incentivizing illegal immigration and protect taxpayer dollars.

The memorandum directed the secretary of Homeland Security to ensure unauthorized immigrants do not receive funds from Social Security programs and prioritized civil or criminal enforcement against states or localities for potential violations of Title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.

It also expanded the Social Security Administration’s fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 U.S. attorney ofices and established a Medicare and Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. attorney offices.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

MADISON, S.D. — Dakota State University hasn’t experienced the student protests taking place at other U.S. colleges. Nestled in rural South Dakota, most of the nearly 4,000 students have been focused on their studies or job hunts, avoiding politics and partisan groups.

Until now.

The university administration decided to award an honorary doctorate to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and invited her to give a commencement speech May 10, bringing politics to the campus.

In response, students have planned a rally on graduation day opposing the former South Dakota governor and the Trump administration and expect protesters from across southeast South Dakota to join them.

They want to speak out against the federal government’s immigration policies, which are being implemented with Noem’s oversight, on behalf of peers who fear for their legal status. They also are expected to protest Noem’s anti-LGBTQ+ actions during her time as governor.

Some students and faculty also said they thought the honorary degree was too high an honor to bestow upon her.

Among Dakota State students, many are unsure if they should join the objections or stay quiet to avoid the kind of punishments suffered by students at more outspoken colleges.

“The atmosphere is tense,” humanities instructor Daniel Spencer said. “Students are afraid of making their voices heard.”

Students studying in its renowned cybersecurity program have traditionally been hesitant to take political stances because they fear potential blowback when they later seek government and private sector jobs.

The school’s location in Madison, a small town about an hour’s drive northwest of Sioux Falls, also is a factor.

“Many of our students are from rural South Dakota, and there’s a bit of an unwillingness to confront authority,” professor emeritus Dale Droge said. “We don’t have very many students in the political sciences or history where they might be thinking about these more civil rights kind of actions.”

Hundreds of international students who attend Dakota State and haven’t yet been affected by recent Homeland Security actions are weighing their participation options. The agency had terminated the legal status of more than 1,000 international students before reversing course and outlining a new policy for those terminations.

“I have international students coming to me from outside of the senate, across campus, who expressed to me that they don’t want to get involved in any of this because they have fears of getting their visas revoked,” said Anden Wieseler, a Dakota State junior and student senate vice president.

Noem’s support for the school

The school selected Noem because she was an “unwavering champion of Dakota State” during her time as governor, university spokesperson Andrew Sogn said in a written statement to the Associated Press.

Noem, who received a political science degree from South Dakota State University, supported Dakota State’s cybersecurity initiatives and helped secure millions of dollars in funding, cementing the school’s standing as a national cybersecurity leader, Sogn said.

“She was asked to share remarks with DSU’s graduates based on her distinguished and groundbreaking career in public service, and her many efforts to support the citizens of the state of South Dakota and the nation,” Sogn said.

Noem’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Dakota State President José-Marie Griffiths nominated Noem to receive an honorary doctorate, though the university declined to provide details of the offer. The general faculty and student senate voted against the nomination, with only one of the 15 student senators voting in favor of the nomination, Wiesler said.

Fear of speaking out

“There is a fear among a lot of the international student body on speaking on this matter, just a result of the current political climate,” said Tyler Sprik, a freshman and student senator. “That’s part of the reason me and several other senators have become so involved — it’s because a lot of our colleagues can’t.”

Faculty members also are apprehensive to share their opinions publicly. Some said the administration discouraged them from speaking to media and joining student rallies. Some cited President Trump’s heightened scrutiny on higher education as reason for caution.

Other students said they feared reprisal from the administration and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they didn’t want to jeopardize their jobs.

Sogn said that faculty members are welcome to speak with the media.

South Dakota faculty are afforded fewer protections than in other states due to a 2020 state law outlawing faculty unions at public colleges.

Droge is troubled by the reluctance to speak out.

“It is very concerning to me that we’ve reached a point in not just Dakota State, but in so many institutions that people are afraid to speak freely even on issues like this of free speech and principles and ethics,” Droge said. “These things aren’t against the university in any way, but it’s about allowing people to speak their minds freely.”

Some faculty members also said having a high-profile figure at commencement may take attention away from the graduates.

“The biggest chatter I’ve heard from students and other faculty is first and foremost concern that there will be a disruption to the commencement, which we all feel is so important to the students that are there,” said Stephen Krebsbach, a computer science professor.

Still, many students are preparing for the rally.

“The students’ attitude is clear. No honor for Noem. Give commencement back to the graduates and listen to us,” Sprik said.

Raza writes for the Associated Press.