Washington — Democratic members of Congress on Tuesday traveled to Louisiana to meet with Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, who remain in custody at Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers as they face deportation.
Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, and Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student, were separately taken into custody in March by federal authorities amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on students with visas and green cards who participated in pro-Palestinian activities.
Neither has been charged with a crime, and the lawmakers demanded their immediate release.
“Both of these individuals are political prisoners. They don’t belong here,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.
The congressional delegation also included Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Rep. Ayana Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, all Democrats.
“They’re frightened. They’re concerned. They want to go home,” Carter said.
The Trump administration has argued that Khalil should be stripped of his green card and deported due to his links to protests on Columbia’s campus against the war in Gaza last year. It also alleged Öztürk, a Turkish national, had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” Her attorneys argue she was detained for writing an opinion piece that called on the school to divest from Israel and “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
In many of the student visa cases the Trump administration has invoked a rarely used provision of immigration law that allows the government to seek the deportation of noncitizens whose “presence or activities” are determined to “have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
The Trump administration has argued it has the right to revoke students’ visas. “When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Both Khalil and Öztürk are challenging their detentions.
Khalil, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was denied his request for temporary release for the birth of his first child on Monday.
“That’s cruelty,” McGovern said.
Markey noted that Öztürk has suffered multiple asthma attacks while in detention. Öztürk said in a court filing she has received limited medical attention, though a senior Department of Homeland Security official said she has gotten “prompt medical care and services.”
“Notwithstanding that, Rümeysa continues to have a spirit. She continues to have a sense of right that fuels her very being,” Markey said.
The visit follows recent trips by other congressional Democrats to El Salvador to press for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported last month by the Trump administration.
Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, also met Monday with Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident detained in Vermont. Mahdawi, who led protests against the Israel-Hamas war at Columbia University, was taken into custody earlier this month during a U.S. citizenship interview.
