A federal judge in Boston ordered that the Trump administration cannot deport a Tufts graduate student detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, NBC 10 Boston reported Friday evening.
Before any decisions are made, the judge said Rumeysa Ozturk cannot be deported until that same judge has decided if she was lawfully arrested, WCVB-TV also reported Friday.
MassLive contacted Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, for more information about the judge’s ruling. She did not immediately reply.
Ozturk, 30, was detained in Somerville on Tuesday evening by a group of federal agents in masks and plain clothes as she headed to an Iftar, the evening meal to break a Ramadan fast. She is detained in an ICE facility in Louisiana.
No charges have been filed against Ozturk, a former Fulbright scholar who had a valid F-1 student visa, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement on Friday.
The timing of when she was sent to Louisiana is not clear, but a judge ordered Tuesday night that ICE not remove Ozturk from Massachusetts without prior notice.
Khanbabai filed an emergency petition on Wednesday asking the government to disclose where Ozturk was being detained and to speak to Ozturk before 6 p.m.
When Khanbabai was able to reach her, Ozturk said she suffered an asthma attack while she was sent to Louisiana, the ACLU’s statement read. Ozturk was detained without two medications she takes to treat asthma, Khanbabai previously wrote in the original petition.
Ozturk is studying child study and human development at Tufts and is set to complete her program this year, according to an op-ed she co-authored in the university’s student newspaper. The op-ed called on Tufts to take action to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and to “disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.”
Also on Friday, Khanbabai, the ACLU and the ACLU of Massachusetts filed an amended habeas petition and complaint with the Massachusetts federal court challenging Ozturk’s detention.
“Rumeysa’s arrest and detention are designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others,” the complaint stated. “Indeed, her arrest and detention are part of a concerted and systemic effort by Trump administration officials to punish students and others identified with pro-Palestine activism. When asked about Rumeysa’s case, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed revoking her visa, adding, ‘We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.‘”
Rubio spoke about Ozturk’s arrest on Thursday and added that the United States has a “right like every country in the world” to remove people.
“We don’t want it in our country,” the secretary of state said. “Go back and do it in your country, but you’re not going to do it in our country.”
The ACLU’s complaint said her detention violates the First and Fifth Amendments and the Administrative Procedure Act. For these reasons, “Rumeysa should be released.”
On Wednesday, hundreds protested at a park near Tufts University in support of Ozturk.
A sign at a protest on March 26 at the Powder House Square Park, near Tufts University. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts Ph.D. student, was detained by federal agents on March 25.(Irene Rotondo/MassLive)
Many protesters wore masks and face coverings, and while most Tufts students declined to speak with reporters, their signs made their stances clear. They read, “Release Rumeysa Ozturk Now,” and “We The People Demand Free Speech” and demand “Due Process,” in black, red and green writing.
Ozturk’s arrest comes after the arrests of three students at Columbia University involved in pro-Palestinian protests there, which began with Mahmoud Khalil earlier in March. Khalil, 30, a lawful U.S. resident who was a graduate student at Columbia until December, was arrested by federal immigration agents and flown to an immigration jail in Louisiana, according to the Associated Press.
It also comes just over a week after a Brown University professor was deported after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol terminated her visa. The federal government said the professor, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, had photos of leaders of Hezbollah and Iran on her phone.
