SOMERVILLE, MASS. (WHDH) – A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts graduate student detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a street in Somerville earlier this week, cannot be deported until the court makes a decision on the case.
Ozturk remains at a detention facility in Louisiana, but lawyers and lawmakers are asking that she be brought back to Massachusetts to face due process.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, is being held at an ICE detention center in Louisiana. In a new filing, her attorneys claim the arrest violates the First and Fifth Amendments.
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders were just a few of the dozens of lawmakers who signed a letter seeking answers about her arrest and calling for full due process.
“We have to fight them,” said Markey. “They’re in for a battle. We’re not going to stop until we absolutely insure that the American people know what’s at stake.”
Absent compelling evidence justifying her detention and the revocation of her status, “we call for Ozturk’s release and the restoration of her visa,” the letter read.
Markey, along with Ozturk’s lawyers, are arguing for her to be returned to Massachusetts.
Ozturk’s lawyers say she began fearing for her safety last month when her name and picture appeared on a website spotlighting people it says engage in anti-Israel activities.
Ozturk, a student visa holder, was picked up by federal agents near her home in Somerville Tuesday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he pulled Ozturk’s visa and hundreds of others for “tearing up” local college campuses. Ozturk co-authored a pro-Palestinian op-ed during protests on campus last year.
Her lawyers responding, saying in part, “Rumeysa’s arrest and detention are designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others. Indeed, her arrest and detention are part of a concerted and systemic effort by the Trump…