The Justice Department is fighting a judge’s ruling requiring the White House to move Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk from a Louisiana facility to an immigration facility in Vermont.
This comes after ICE agents arrested Ozturk in March for allegedly engaging “in activities in support of Hamas.” US District Judge William K. Sessions III ruled on Friday that Ozturk should be allowed to remain in Vermont as her petition challenging her detention is litigated.
When this video was first texted to me, I assumed it was from Iran.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 27, 2025
The way she screams, she was wearing a hijab, and the way the law enforcement approached her it looked no different from the way Islamic Republic authorities
arrest women.
It's from Massachusetts, of course.… pic.twitter.com/9g0rrUuWcG
In 2024, Ozturk co-authored an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper urging the school to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from companies connected to Israel.
From NBC News:
Öztürk was moved to three separate locations, including Vermont, before she ended up in Louisiana, despite an order from a district court that said she could not be moved out of Massachusetts without notice.
“For nearly 24 hours, Ms. Öztürk’s attorney was unable to locate her,” the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing her in part, said in a news release. “More than 16 hours after a federal court ordered that Ms. Öztürk not be moved out of Massachusetts in order to ‘preserve the status quo,’ her counsel was kept in the dark about Ms. Öztürk’s whereabouts.”
Court documents show that ICE officials said she was transferred there because “there was no available bedspace” in the New England facilities.
Immigration advocates and experts say that facilities in rural Louisiana have been the subject of major human rights criticisms and that the Trump administration has sent students to a jurisdiction that is aligned with its immigration goals.
The Justice Department has provided no other evidence that Ozturk is tied to Hamas or that she has supported the group, which has garnered criticisms from those arguing that the Trump administration is seeking to punish Ozturk and other foreign students for their speech.
In a Tuesday post on X, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), announced he was traveling to Louisiana to meet with Ozturk, one of his constituents.
Rumeysa shouldn't have to face this, and neither should anyone. They have no evidence. They've made no charges. I'm here to listen to her, to stand with her, and to ensure that we push for the justice, which she deserves. This is about all of us, and it's time we demand more from our leaders. I'll be standing with Romesa this week, and I'll be fighting to make sure that the injustice she's faced is never allowed to happen again and to make sure her story is heard.
I filmed this yesterday on my way to Lousiana where my constituent Rümeysa Öztürk is being wrongfully held by ICE. I’m there now demanding her release. More to come. pic.twitter.com/KXGpXgIcj1
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) April 22, 2025
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted that “For nearly 24 hours, Ms. Öztürk’s friends, family, and counsel could not locate or contact her. When her attorney was finally able to speak with her, they learned that she had suffered an asthma attack while en route to Louisiana. Ms. Öztürk has not been charged with or accused of any crime.”
Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said, the student’s arrest “is yet another escalation of this administration’s efforts to silence speech.”
The State Department earlier this month issued a memo determining that the White House had not shown any evidence that Ozturk was involved in antisemitic activities or that she had made anti-Jewish statements or publicly declared support for Hamas.
During a March press conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked over 300 student visas belonging to students who advocate against the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. "It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas," he said.
Ozturk’s bail hearing is set for May 9 in the US District Court in Burlington, Vermont.
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