Also providing legal support is the CLEAR legal clinic, which is focused on supporting Muslim, Arab, and South Asian peoples under investigation by the government “under the guise of national security,” according to the clinic’s website. It is affiliated with the City University of New York Law School, or CUNY.
Öztürk’s defense has filed an updated habeas corpus petition and a civil complaint in US District Court in Boston naming both President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as defendants.
Her attorneys argue that Öztürk, a 30-year-old PhD student from Turkey, is being targeted for taking a public pro-Palestinian stance on Tufts campus last year in violation of her First Amendment right to free speech.
The latest filing also asserts that Öztürk’s Fifth Amendment right to due process was violated since she was unaware her visa was revoked when ICE agents placed her in handcuffs outside her home.
“Rümeysa’s arrest and detention are designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others,” the defense argued in court papers. “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.”
The defense also argues that the administration did not follow Department of Homeland Security rules that apply when an international student has visa issues. Öztürk should not have been arrested but notified that a hearing was to be held on the matter at a future date, the lawyers say in the filing.
“Arrest and detention are not a necessary or usual consequence of the revocation of a visa,” the attorneys wrote. “But like the revocation of her visa, her arrest and detention are designed to silence her, punish her for her speech and ensure that other students will be chilled from expressing pro-Palestinian viewpoints.”
The document also provides new details of a key issue in the administration’s treatment of Öztürk and the timing of a federal judge’s order to keep her in Massachusetts for at least 48 hours.
ICE agents arrested Öztürk shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, and Khanbabai filed the first habeas petition at 10:02 p.m. Tuesday. At 10:55 p.m. Tuesday, US District Court Judge Indira Talwani ordered ICE to keep Öztürk in Massachusetts, the attorneys wrote.
Khanbabai returned to court around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, asking for help in locating Öztürk since her efforts, that of the Turkish consulate, and her friends had been unsuccessful. It was only after 3 p.m. Wednesday that Khanbabai was informed by US Attorney Leah B. Foley that Öztürk was located in Louisiana, the defense said.
According to the defense, Foley’s office was also apparently kept in the dark by ICE officials until Wednesday afternoon.
ICE officials said Öztürk had already been transported out of Massachusetts before Talwani’s order came down. Similar assertions and timing questions around removals are being looked at by federal judges in other courts across the country.
“The movement of [Öztürk] to other states is consistent with, and part of, ICE’s pattern and practice of moving people detained for their speech to distant locations incommunicado and in secret to frustrate the ability of counsel to file habeas petitions on their behalf,‘’ the attorneys wrote.
Rubio on Thursday linked Öztürk to the pro-Palestinian protests on multiple college campuses following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and Israel’s retaliatory war on Gaza that followed. He said Öztürk’s student visa was revoked, making it illegal for her to remain in the US and allowing ICE to take her into custody pending deportation.
“I think it’s stupid for any country in the world to welcome people into their country that are going to go to your universities as visitors, and say, ‘I’m going to your universities to start a riot,’ ” Rubio said. “‘I’m going to your university to take over a library and harass people.‘”
Öztürk is a Fulbright scholar who has been pursuing a doctorate in child and human development at Tufts. She is a teaching fellow at the university and was awarded a department scholarship, according to her attorneys and a posting by her colleagues.
“Rümeysa is a student, teacher, colleague, and a valued member of our community,” her colleagues wrote. She has helped design a mosaic for the department, has volunteered with the campus chaplaincy providing support “for both Muslim students and students from other religious and philosophical traditions.”
Tufts was one of dozens of New England schools that saw student encampments and protests last year. At Tufts, students eventually dismantled their encampment voluntarily, without the violent clashes seen elsewhere.
Last March, Öztürk co-authored an op-ed in the university’s student paper, criticizing Tufts’ response to the pro-Palestinian movement and calling for divestment from Israel. However, it is unclear how active she was in the broader protest movement on campus.
The Trump administration has vowed to deport non-citizen pro-Palestinian activists whom it accuses of engaging in antisemitic or illegal protests. That campaign is part of Trump’s wider crackdown on elite universities, including funding cuts, bans on diversity programs, and investigations over schools’ alleged inaction on antisemitism.
A video of Öztürk’s detention led Democratic US Representative Stephen Lynch, of Massachusetts, to call the arrest “Gestapo-like” as other Massachusetts federal lawmakers demanded her release.
On Wednesday evening, more than 2,000 people rallied in support of Öztürk at a park near Powder House Square and the Tufts campus. And hundreds of Tufts students have signed an on-line petition demanding a “full-throated response” by university leaders to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and colleges.
This is a developing story and will be updated when more information becomes available. Information from earlier Globe reporting was used in this account.
John R. Ellement can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Shelley Murphy can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @shelleymurph.
