A federal court hearing is set to address the case of a Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey who was detained by immigration authorities.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was grabbed by masked, plainclothes immigration officials as she walked along a street in Somerville on March 25. She was removed from the state and remains in a detention center in Louisiana.
According to a petition filed on her behalf in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts on Wednesday, Ozturk's treatment was unusual because people arrested on civil immigration charges in Massachusetts are typically booked at the ICE ERO’s Boston Field Office in Burlington, Massachusetts, in a process that takes several hours. Instead, the petition states, Ozturk was taken to a location in Methuen, then out of state to Lebanon, New Hampshire, then another location in Vermont before she was flown to the Louisiana facility.
"When ICE pursues detention, the person is typically held in Burlington for at least 12 hours—and generally 24-48 hours—before any transfer occurs," the filing claims.
The Justice Department has said there was no available space to detain her in New England. The petition filed on Ozturk's behalf questions that point, saying there were multiple locations in the Northeast that house woman, and claiming that ICE made no efforts to communicate with these facilities.
All this is significant to the question of jurisdiction, which the federal government says should be in Louisiana. A judge, when informed of the case, ordered Ozturk not be removed from Massachusetts without notice to the courts. However, the federal government said she had already been moved before that order was issued.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston scheduled a hearing for 2 p.m. Thursday on the matter. Previously, Casper, responding to a petition filed last week by Ozturk's lawyers, issued a ruling on March 28 that Ozturk can't be removed from the United States “until further order of this court.”
More background on Ozturk's case
Ozturk was studying on a valid F-1 visa. However, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed the termination of Ozturk's visa last week, saying investigations found she engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. The department did not provide evidence of that support and there was no further explanation in the government lawyers' response Tuesday.
Gov. Maura Healey called out the apparent targeting of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk for cowriting an article in her school newspaper and demanded answers from the Department of Homeland Security.
“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week when asked about Ozturk.
Hamas militants invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in an attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and during which about 250 hostages were seized. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and destroyed much of the enclave.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily last year that criticized the university’s response to student demands that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.
In a declaration of support filed by Tufts University, President Sunil Kumar said the op-ed did not violate any school policies, or, to their understanding, the law.
"The University has no further information suggesting that she has acted in a manner that would constitute a violation of the University's understanding of the Immigration and Naturalization Act," the filing reads.
Friends have said Ozturk was not otherwise closely involved in protests against Israel.
The university's filing calls for Ozturk's release so she can continue her studies.
Questions of who holds legal jurisdiction
On Tuesday, lawyers for the Justice Department argued that the judge lacks jurisdiction to decide Ozturk's case. They said Ozturk's lawyers had to file her petition in the jurisdiction where she was confined, according to court paperwork. They said the case should be dismissed or transferred to Louisiana, and that any challenge belongs in immigration court.
Ozturk "is not without recourse to challenge the revocation of her visa and her arrest and detention, but such challenge cannot be made before this court,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter wrote. The filing mentioned an April 7 appearance for Ozturk before an immigration judge in Louisiana.
Ozturk's lawyers have until late Wednesday afternoon to respond to the government's argument.
Ozturk's lawyers have said that her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. They asked the judge to order that she be immediately returned to Massachusetts and released from custody.
Rallies in support of Ozturk were held in Boston and at Tufts University on Tuesday and another was planned in Boston on Wednesday.
Ozturk is among several people with ties to American universities who attended demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians during the war in Gaza and who have recently had visas revoked or been stopped from entering the U.S.
A federal judge Friday blocked the government from deporting a Tufts University student detained by ICE earlier this week. Here's the latest on this developing story. Follow NBC10 Boston: https://instagram.com/nbc10boston https://tiktok.com/@nbc10boston https://facebook.com/NBC10Boston https://twitter.com/NBC10Boston https://bsky.app/profile/nbcboston.com
Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University graduate student detained last week by ICE, received a show of support at rallies Tuesday.
