Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter Friday calling for the release of a Tufts University PhD student from immigration detention and demanding answers about her “disturbing” arrest and detainment earlier this week, and whether government agencies are “compiling a dossier of university students involved in Palestine-related protests,” according to a copy of the letter.
“This arrest appears to be one of the latest in a string of ICE arrests of university students with valid green cards and visas because of their political views,” the letter said. “These are deeply troubling incidents.”
More than two dozen other lawmakers, including Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey and US Representative Katherine M. Clark, minority whip of the US House of Representatives, signed onto the letter addressed to US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and acting Director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd M. Lyons.
Rumeysa Ozturk, who is in the US on a student visa from Turkey, was walking along a Somerville sidewalk near the Tufts campus Tuesday evening when she was surrounded by multiple plainclothes officers who covered their faces, placed her in handcuffs, and took her away in an unmarked SUV with tinted windows as she pleaded for an explanation.
Ozturk’s attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, has said she is not aware of any criminal charges against her client, the Globe reported.
Warren’s letter called for Ozturk’s release and restoration of her visa and demanded answers to 10 questions by April 4, including whether government agencies are “compiling a dossier of university students involved in Palestine-related protests.”
If so, the letter asks to identify which agencies are doing it and under what criteria.
“The administration should not summarily detain and deport legal residents of this country merely for their political views,” the letter said.
The letter also sought to find out details of still unanswered questions: What prompted Ozturk’s arrest, who approved it, what agencies were involved? Under what legal authority was it allowed? Why was her visa revoked, and when was she transferred to Louisiana?
“How many students’ visas has the State Department terminated under this authority?” the letter said.
The letter also requested information on protocols for using masked officers and unmarked vehicles and not revealing badges.
“Under such circumstances, how can individuals distinguish legitimate DHS officers from potential impersonators?” the letter said.
Other lawmakers from New England who signed on to the letter include Massachusetts congress members Jake Auchincloss, Stephen F. Lynch, James P. McGovern, Seth Moulton, Ayanna Pressley, and Lori Trahan; Vermont Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch.
Rubio defended Ozturk’s detention, and similar measures that are being pursued against other international students, while speaking to reporters in Guyana on Thursday.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States to be a student, and you tell us the reason you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in a movement involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.
Last spring, Ozturk was one of four authors of an op-ed that was published in the university’s student paper, criticizing Tufts’ response to the pro-Palestinian movement. It is unclear how active Ozturk was in the broader protest movement on campus.
Tonya Alanez can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @talanez.
