Washington — A federal judge in Vermont considered Monday whether to release a Tufts University Ph.D. student as she challenges her detention as a violation of her free speech rights.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at the Massachusetts university, was detained by immigration authorities last month outside of her apartment because her student visa had been revoked. The Trump administration has said hundreds of students studying at American universities have had their visas taken away or were stopped from reentering the United States after they were accused of publicly expressing support for Palestinians.
Ozturk’s attorneys argue that her detention violated her First and Fifth Amendment rights, and are seeking to have her either released on bail or, as an alternative, transferred to Vermont from Louisiana. She is currently detained at a federal immigration facility in Basile, Louisiana.
Jessie Rossman, one of Ozturk’s lawyers, told U.S. District Judge William Sessions during a hearing that the “sole basis” of Ozturk’s arrest was an editorial she co-authored in the Tufts’ student newspaper that criticized the school for its handling of several resolutions adopted by the undergraduate student senate in an effort to “hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law.”
Ozturk’s attorneys also argued that the government’s decision to transport Ozturk across three states — Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont — before she was sent to Louisiana was unusual and designed to punish Ozturk for protected speech.
Courtesy of the Ozturk family via Reuters 
“This was done to chill her speech and send a clear, chilling message to everyone watching,” Rossman said, adding that the government knew the public was paying attention. “If you engage in speech that the administration disagrees with, you will be punished.”
The Justice Department has argued that federal courts do not have jurisdiction over Ozturk’s case under federal immigration law, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement has initiated removal proceedings against her. Michael Drescher, a Justice Department lawyer, said Ozturk must seek release through the immigration courts.
“Congress has been crystal clear on that,” he said, adding that she can seek review of an adverse decision from a Board of Immigration Appeals from a federal appeals court.
Sessions and the government engaged in a debate over the scope of habeas jurisdiction — which allows courts to review the legality of a person’s detention — and discussed whether the court has the authority to consider Ozturk’s detention amid ongoing removal proceedings, as well as whether her petition named the proper immigration officials.
The judge suggested that if the court found a constitutional violation but was told it lacked the authority to order her release due to an immigration detention order, it could create a troubling legal conflict.
“Then we’re in a constitutional crisis,” Sessions warned.
Sessions noted that the case stands at the intersection of immigration law and a detainee’s right to challenge the legality of their confinement.
“The Constitution rubs up against the [Immigration and Nationalities Act] perhaps in some areas but fundamentally, the court’s responsibility is to make an assessment about constitutional liberties and if there is a constitutional violation here, certainly that takes precedence,” he said.
Noor Zafar, a lawyer for Ozturk, argued she is not contesting the executive branch’s authority to exercise its discretion to detain people pending their removal from the U.S., but rather the basis for Ozturk’s detention.
Zafar said the circumstances surrounding Ozturk’s detention are “extraordinary,” as immigration authorities made the decision to take her into custody in retaliation for her speech.
The judge did not decide immediately whether to grant the government’s request to dismiss Ozturk’s habeas petition, or order her returned to Vermont from Louisiana. But he raised the prospect of bringing Ozturk back to Vermont for a bail hearing while he addresses her constitutional challenge to her detention.
Ozturk’s lawyers also argued that the existing record is sufficient to make a determination on bail, and said that the government has had multiple opportunities to present evidence against allowing her to be released while her case proceeds, but has failed to do so. Her legal team said that there is no reason to believe the government would present new evidence to counter their case, which would demonstrate that Ozturk has met the necessary bail requirements.
Drescher, in response, referred back to the Immigration and Nationality Act, asserting that the law presents limits for a court to release the petitioner on bail.
“There is a legitimate question as to whether the INA would permit such a release,” he argued.
Mahsa Khanbabai, one of Ozturk’s attorneys, told CBS Boston on Sunday that it’s “pretty clear, based on the lack of evidence that the government has submitted, that she’s done anything that’s violated our immigration laws.”
“It’s essentially just trying to silence and show everyone from speaking out and creating basically this, you know, Soviet-style era of watch your neighbor and report on what your neighbor is doing to us,” Khanbabi said.
Ozturk’s case arose after she was arrested by immigration agents outside of her Somerville, Massachusetts, apartment before attending an iftar dinner. She was transported to Methuen, Massachusetts, and then to Lebanon, New Hampshire, according to court filings. From there, she was brought to an ICE field office in St. Albans, Vermont, and was held there overnight. The following morning, on March 26, Ozturk was taken to the airport in Burlington, Vermont, and flown to Louisiana, where she was transferred to the immigration detention facility in Basile.
During the hearing, Sessions scrutinized the timeline of events from when Ozturk was taken into custody to when she was flown to Louisiana. A federal judge in Massachusetts had issued an order on the night of March 25 — hours after Ozturk’s arrest — that blocked the government from moving her out of the state.
The judge said the Massachusetts court “clearly expressed in a judicial order from an Article III judge” a desire to maintain jurisdiction over Ozturk’s case. That order, Sessions said, “had no impact upon what ultimately happened to” Ozturk, as she was transferred to Louisiana anyway.
Drescher, the Justice Department lawyer, said Ozturk was already in Vermont when that order was issued, which “created complications” of how to interpret and respond to it.
Ozturk’s whereabouts emerged as a key question in the challenge to her detention, as the Justice Department has repeatedly sought to have her case transferred to Louisiana because it is where she is detained.
Earlier this month, a Massachusetts judge rejected an earlier effort by the Justice Department to throw out the challenge to Ozturk’s detention after she was first taken into custody, but moved the case to Vermont because it is where she was located when her lawyers filed a habeas petition contesting her confinement.
Ozturk’s attorney on Monday also referenced a Washington Post report filed with the court, which cited internal memos indicating that the State Department found no evidence linking Ozturk to antisemitic activity or support for terrorism. Those underlying memos have not yet been produced in court. CBS News reached out to the State Department for comment.
In a separate filing last week, Ozturk, 30, detailed how she was detained by ICE. Surveillance footage showed six plainclothes ICE agents who appeared to be wearing masks stopping Ozturk on the street and taking her into custody.
“I felt very scared and concerned as the men surrounded me and grabbed my phone from me,” Ozturk said in the statement, writing that the officers told her they were police, and one quickly showed what might have been a gold badge. “But I didn’t think they were the police because I had never seen police approach and take someone away like this,” she said.
She added that the officers did not tell her why they were arresting her, and that they repeatedly denied her requests to speak to an attorney.
