Attorneys for a Tufts University doctoral student grabbed off the street by plainclothes ICE officers earlier this week are accusing the federal government of violating her rights to “free speech and due process” in an updated legal petition filed on Friday. Her case drew attention after a chilling video of her arrest circulated on social media.
Rumeysa Ozturk’s visa was canceled apparently over an op-ed she co-wrote criticizing her university for refusing to recognize student government resolutions condemning Israel's war in Gaza, her attorneys say, published almost one year to the day before she was arrested on Tuesday. The arrest came as the Trump administration wages war on pro-Palestinian speech at college campuses around the country.
In the new complaint filed in the District Court for Massachusetts, attorneys say Ozturk’s arrest was “designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Ozturk’s visa was revoked for pro-Palestinian activism in a Thursday presser, adding that students “creating a ruckus” could face deportation.
“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 complaint read. “Her continued detention is therefore unlawful.”
Now represented by a coalition of attorneys including the Massachusetts and national ACLU, Ozturk is being held in Louisiana — a state in the highly conservative Fifth Circuit Court, where authorities also took Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil —after a judge ordered the government to keep her in Massachusetts.
Mahsa Khanbabai, who has represented Ozturk since the day of her arrest, said that transport was illegal. Additionally, Khanbabai said the Trump administration kept Ozturk’s whereabouts hidden for nearly 24 hours before revealing it “shipped her to Louisiana.” Her experience was “shocking, cruel, and unconstitutional,” Khanbabai said in a statement Friday.
“Criticizing U.S. foreign policy and human rights violations is neither illegal nor grounds for detention. The government must immediately release Rümeysa to continue her studies and rejoin her community,” Khanbabai added.
Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, called Ozturk’s visa cancellation on the basis of political speech an “affront to all of our constitutional rights.”
“We will not stop fighting until Ms. Ozturk is free to return to her loved ones and until we know the government will not abuse immigration law to punish those who speak up for what they believe,” Rossman said in the statement.
Ozturk is one of at least 300 students whose visas have been taken by Rubio, and a handful of students who have been arrested and detained. Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil was detained in his university-owned apartment building two weeks ago and has been in ICE custody since.
Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi was also seized Tuesday, though federal authorities haven’t explained why or produced evidence that he was tied to pro-Palestinian activism or any other cause.
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