a Doctoral students at Tufts University A person detained by immigration officers from Turkey said she was talking to her mother on her phone shortly after she left Massachusetts when she was surrounded by several men.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was moved to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center in Basil, Louisiana, provided her with an updated account on what happened to her. When she walked along the street In a document filed by an attorney in federal court on Thursday, March 25th.
Ozturk is in it Several people with connections to American universities Who is Attendance demonstration or Publicly expressed against the Palestinians Those who have been recently revoked or stopped entering the US during the war in Gaza
File – In this image taken from a security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by a Department of Homeland Security agent on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
“I was very scared and worried.”
“I was very scared and worried because the man surrounded me and grabbed the phone from me,” Oztzurku said in a statement. They told her it was the police, but one person immediately showed that it might have been a gold badge. “But I never saw the police approach and take away anyone like this, so I didn’t think they were police.”
Ozturk said she was afraid as her name, photographs and work history were published earlier this year on the website Canary Mission. It explains that it records people who “promote America, Israel and Jews on university campuses in North America.”
She said the man didn’t tell her why they were arresting her. At one point she felt that after they changed cars, “I’m sure they’ll kill me.” During a stop in Massachusetts, one of the men told her, “We’re not monsters,” and “We do what the government is telling us.”
She said they repeatedly refused her request to speak to an attorney.
Scheduled hearings in the Ozturk incident in Vermont
The petition to release her was first filed in federal court in Boston, before moving to Burlington, Vermont. I’ve heard about her incident Resolving jurisdiction issues is scheduled for Monday.
Ozturk’s lawyers say the detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and legitimate proceedings. They asked her to be released from custody. A U.S. Department of Justice attorney says her case in New England should be dismissed and handled in immigration courts.
“We are not without requests to challenge the visa and arrest and detention revocation, but we cannot do such a task in front of this court,” the government’s lawyer filed Thursday.
She was asked to apply for asylum during her night in Cell, Vermont, and was reminded whether she was a member of a terrorist organization. “I tried to help and answer their questions, but I was so tired that I couldn’t understand what was going on with me,” she said.
Ozturk, who suffers from asthma, was attacked the following day at an Atlanta airport while being taken to Louisiana. She was able to use an inhaler but couldn’t get prescription medication because she had nowhere to buy it, she said she was told.
File – This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on his 2021 Apple Picking Trip (AP Photo)
Ozturk says she wasn’t out for a week
Once she was put into a Louisiana facility, she was not allowed to go outside in the first week, and she had limited access to food and supplies for two weeks. She said she suffered from three more asthma attacks there, with limited care at the medical center.
Ozturk said she is one of 24 people in the cell with signs showing capacity of 14 people.
“When they list the number of inmates, we are either threatened to leave our bed or we lose our privileges. So we often wait in bed for hours,” she said. “When we eat, there’s a lot of anxiety because there’s no schedule when it comes, so… they threaten to close the door if we don’t leave the room in time, meaning we won’t get food.”
Ozturk said he wanted to go back to the cell so she could complete her degree.
Ozturk is one of four students who wrote OP-ED for the campus newspaper The Tufts last year, and last year he criticised the university’s response to student activists demanding that Taft “recognizes the Palestinian genocide,” revealing its investments and building ties with Israel from companies.
senior Ministry of Homeland Security A spokesman said federal authorities have taken Ozturk into custody after the investigation was found to have said that he is “engaged in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that tastes the murder of Americans.” The department provided no evidence of its support.
Ozturk is supported by a coalition of Jewish groups
A coalition of 27 Jewish organizations from across the country opposes the arrest and detention of Ozturk.
The organization says that Ozturk’s deportation of these actions and possibilities for protected speeches “violates the “most fundamental constitutional rights” such as freedom of expression.”
“The government appears to be exploiting the legitimate concerns of Jewish Americans about anti-Semitism as an excuse to undermine the core pillars of American democracy, the rule of law, and the fundamental rights of freedom of speech and academic debate that this country was built.”
Source link
