U.S. government lawyers on Thursday alleged in a Boston court that they had moved doctoral students from nearby Tufts University to Louisiana immigration detention.
At a hearing in federal court on Thursday morning, a Turkish national student lawyer filed an emergency motion the day before, rescinding an emergency motion requiring the government to give birth to her after she was shipped to Louisiana. The allegations and one from the government were sealed.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was sent to Southern detention Wednesday after being stolen from the street outside his home on Tuesday.
The court ordered Ice not to move her out of the Massachusetts Court District, but on Thursday, Justice Department lawyers said the Oztalc relocation to Louisiana took place before the judge ordered her to be kept in Massachusetts.
During a federal court hearing Thursday morning in Boston, District Judge Indira Talwani issued an order to grant the government until Friday to answer the reasons why Ozturk was in custody.
US Immigration and Institutional Enforcement (ICE), part of the DHS, said on Thursday that Ozturk was in custody at a detention center in Basil, Louisiana, and spoke with his attorney. A senior DHS spokesman also confirmed Ozturk’s detention and the termination of his student visa.
The dramatic footage appeared on Wednesday evening, when a US immigration officer wearing a mask and hoodie detained, handcuffed and bustled with an unmarked car on the street, a doctoral student at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by federal immigration agents on Tuesday and was held at an ice processing center in South Louisiana on Wednesday, according to the government’s ICE detainee locator page.
The video was taken from a building’s security cameras and shows Ozturk walking along the street. Some officials with badges around their necks all cover their faces.
After she screams, you can hear the invisible onlookers respond.
“Is this an invitation?” asks the bystanders who appear to be recording their arrests for footage that was later circulated on social media.
In separate security camera footage, you can hear agents responding, “We are the police.”
The bystander replies, “You don’t look like it. Why are you hiding your face?”
The relocation of Ozturk appeared to be the first violation of a federal court order from Tuesday. This directed the DHS and ICE to give the court a 48-hour notice before attempting to take them out of Massachusetts. However, on Thursday, government lawyers said her transfer was made before the court order.
Tuesday’s detention is the latest in a string of arrests of students who have not been charged with crime but are involved in pro-Palestinian activities on student campus, amid acute escalation of anti-immigrant crackdowns and attacks on political speeches by the Trump administration.
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said Wednesday that Oztalk was “gived the privilege of being in this country on a visa.” Without providing evidence, the spokesman supported Hamas, the Muslim group that controls Gaza, and accused him of leading an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and spurring Israeli war against Gaza.
A message on Tuesday from Tufts University president Sunil Kumar said the university “has no prior knowledge of the incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event.” Oztarch pursues a PhD in philosophy at university and is a Fulbright scholar.
Ozturk, 30, left home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston and was taken into custody with a friend on the way to quickly destroy Ramadan.
Khanbabai is currently contacting her client, the government said after it was previously reported that she was unable to contact Ozturk.
The Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR) advocacy groups said in a statement: “We explicitly condemn the acquiring of young Muslim hijab-wearing scholars by hidden federal agents who appeared in the daytime. This incredible act of repression is a direct assault on freedom of speech and academic freedom.”
News reports say Ozturk was involved in Palestinian parental activities in Tufts. She co-written the operation for Tufts’ Student Newspaper, criticising the university’s response to Israeli attacks on Gaza and the Palestinians.
“DHS and ICE investigations reveal that Oztalk is engaged in activities to support Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that enjoys the murder of Americans. Visas are privileged and not the right thing to do.
The DHS did not provide an example of Ozturk’s support for Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US government.
“Lumessa was my student, colleague and friend for over a decade,” Ozturk’s friend, Reyan Birge, posted on X.
Other friends and colleagues said they were not closely involved in the Palestinian protests that broke out on campus last spring. Her only known activism co-authored opinions in the student newspaper, saying she amplified the votes for the Student Senate group, which asked the Student Senate group to cut ties with Israel.
“As far as I know, the only one I know of that Lumesa organized was a Thanksgiving potluck,” said Jennifer Hoyden, Ozturk’s best friend, who studied with her at Columbia University’s Teacher College in New York. “There is a very important distinction between writing letters in support of the student Senate and behaviour that they are blaming her, which I have never seen before.”
The Associated Press contributed to reporting
