A federal immigration judge denied bond on Wednesday for Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University student taken off the streets of Somerville by federal immigration agents in March.
Özturk, a 30-year-old Turkish national, has been in federal custody since March 25 when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in plainclothes arrested her on the street in Somerville and whisked her to New Hampshire, then Vermont.
Özturk was ultimately brought to a Louisiana detention center, where she has since been held as one of two dozen women in a 14-person cell and suffered several asthma attacks, according to her own accounts described in court filings.
She has not been charged with a crime to date and was targeted because of an op-ed she co-authored in her student newspaper.
During Özturk’s immigration hearing in Louisiana, the immigration judge denied her bond because Özturk is “both a flight risk and a danger to the community,” according to filings by her lawyers in Vermont federal court.
Her legal team contends the judge’s findings were based on a “one-paragraph ‘memorandum’” revoking her visa that the Department of Homeland Security filed. The “memorandum” solely pointed to Özturk’s op-ed as evidence, her lawyers asserted.
Her lawyers include Mahsa Khanbabai of Khanbabai Immigration Law and several ACLU litigators.
In their filings, Özturk’s legal team asked a federal judge in Vermont to release or at least return Öztürk to Vermont by April 18, in light of concerns for her health and the immigration court proceedings.
“Yesterday’s decision is exactly why we are fighting for the federal courts to intervene in Ms. Öztürk’s immigration case,” Khanbabai said. She reiterated that her client has “committed no crime” and is not a danger to her community.
“This attack on free speech is despicable, but we won’t be deterred. We will keep fighting until Ms. Öztürk is safely returned home to Massachusetts,” Khanbabai said.
Khanbabai previously filed a habeas corpus petition to ask for Öztürk to remain in Massachusetts the night she was detained, but Öztürk was already in Vermont at that time and in Louisiana the following day. A federal judge in Massachusetts transferred her case to Vermont.
Öztürk detailed her experience since being detained in court filings on April 11. She said the agents were “scary and harsh” during her initial arrest, and was not allowed to speak with a lawyer during her ride to New Hampshire and Vermont.
She wrote, “I was afraid that if something happened to me, no one would know where I was.”
“During the night, they came to my cell multiple times and asked me questions about wanting to apply for asylum and if I was a member of a terrorist organization,” the filing reads. “I tried to be helpful and answer their questions but I was so tired and didn’t understand what was happening to me.”
Eventually, Özturk was told she would be taken to Louisiana. An agent told her, “I hope we treated you with respect.”
The following morning, March 26, Özturk was flown from Vermont to Atlanta on the way to Louisiana. In the Atlanta airport, she had the first of four asthma attacks she’s suffered in ICE custody.
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