A Tufts University doctoral student from Turkiye is demanding her release after she was detained by immigration officials near her Massachusetts home, detailing how she was scared when the men grabbed her phone and feared she would be killed.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, who has since been moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana, provided an updated account of what happened to her as she walked along a street on March 25, in a document filed by her lawyers in federal court Thursday.
Ozturk is among several people with ties to American universities whose visas were revoked or have been stopped from entering the US after they were accused of attending demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians.
‘I felt very scared and concerned’
“I felt very scared and concerned as the men surrounded me and grabbed my phone from me,” Ozturk said in the statement. They 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.
Ozturk said she was afraid because her name, photograph and work history were published earlier this year on the website Canary Mission, which describes itself as documenting people who “promote hatred of the USA., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.”
She said the men didn’t tell her why they were arresting her and shackled her. She said at one point, after they had changed cars, she felt “sure they were going to kill me.” During a stop in Massachusetts, one of the men said to her, “We are not monsters,” and “We do what the government tells us.”
She said they repeatedly refused her requests to speak to a lawyer.
Hearing scheduled on Ozturk’s case in Vermont
A petition to release her was first filed in federal court in Boston and then moved to Burlington, Vermont, where a hearing on her case to resolve jurisdictional issues is scheduled on Monday.
Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. They have asked that she be released from custody.
US Justice Department lawyers say her case in New England should be dismissed and that it should be handled in immigration court. Ozturk “is not without recourse to challenge the revocation of her visa and her arrest and detention, but such challenge cannot be made before this court,” government lawyers said in a brief filed Thursday.
She recalled that the night she spent in the cell in Vermont, she was asked about wanting to apply for asylum and if she was a member of a terrorist organization. “I tried to be helpful and answer their questions but I was so tired and didn’t understand what was happening to me,” she stated.
Ozturk, who suffers from asthma, had an attack the next day at the airport in Atlanta, as she was being taken to Louisiana, she said. She was able to use her inhaler, but unable to get her prescribed medication because there was no place to buy it, she said she was told.
Ozturk says she wasn’t let outside for a week
Once she was put in the Louisiana facility, she was not allowed to go outside during the first week and had limited access to food and supplies for two weeks. She said she suffered three more asthma attacks there and had limited care at a medical center.
Ozturk said she is one of 24 people in a cell that has a sign stating capacity for 14.
“When they do the inmate count we are threatened to not leave our beds or we will lose privileges, which means that we are often stuck waiting in our beds for hours,” she said. “At mealtimes, there is so much anxiety because there is no schedule when it comes. … They threaten to close the door if we don’t leave the room in time, meaning we won’t get a meal.”
Ozturk said she wants to go back to Tufts so she can finish her degree, which she has been working on for five years.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said federal authorities detained Ozturk after an investigation found she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” The department did not provide evidence of that support.
Ozturk is supported by coalition of Jewish groups
A coalition of 27 Jewish organizations from across the United States is objecting to Ozturk’s arrest and detention.
The organizations say those actions and possible deportation of Ozturk for her protected speech “violate the most basic constitutional rights,” such as freedom of expression.
“The government … appears to be exploiting Jewish Americans’ legitimate concerns about antisemitism as pretext for undermining core pillars of American democracy, the rule of law, and the fundamental rights of free speech and academic debate on which this nation was built,” the groups say in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Friday in her case.
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Tufts student from Turkiye details arrest, crowded detention conditions in new court filing
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Tufts student from Turkiye details arrest, crowded detention conditions in new court filing
- Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, is among several people with ties to American universities whose visas were revoked or have been stopped from entering the US
- They were accused of attending demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians amid Israel's attacks on Gaza
German parliament vote on pensions tests Merz’s authority
BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ability to control his unruly coalition faces a test on Friday when parliament votes on a pensions bill that stirred a revolt by younger members of his own conservative party.
Fears the revolt could lead to the bill’s defeat, endangering the survival of the coalition, appear to have eased after the opposition Left party said it would abstain. But the dispute has revived doubts about Merz’s ability to manage his party, potentially leaving him dependent on the opposition to get the package through parliament.
His broad coalition of conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) has a slender majority of 12 votes in parliament — enough theoretically to pass the legislation, which maintains current pension levels.
But the conservatives’ youth faction, which has 18 votes, says the measure perpetuates a financially unsustainable system, leaving younger generations to foot the bill. Those legislators have left it unclear which way they will vote.
The Left Party said on Wednesday it would abstain from the vote to ensure the legislation passed in order to protect pensioners from what it called “power games.” Their abstention means the measure needs fewer votes to pass.
Political analysts say infighting over the package has heightened doubt about the coalition’s ability to push through key legislation following a series of blunders this year.
But if Merz has to also rely on the opposition to pass the bill, it would feed doubts about the mammoth tasks of reforming Germany’s ailing economy, Europe’s largest, and rebuilding its long-neglected military.
“Even if the coalition wins the vote, they will hardly gain stability, because the path to forming this majority was very shaky,” said political scientist Johannes Hillje.
“If they don’t have their own majority, then we would have a coalition crisis — as a government is defined by whether it can produce its own majorities.”
Such an outcome could further boost support for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which has surged to first place in nationwide polls in recent months and is on track to make strong gains in five state elections next year.
MERZ DISAPPOINTS HIGH EXPECTATIONS
During the election campaign, Merz, who had never previously held government office, railed against the infighting within the coalition of his SPD predecessor Olaf Scholz.
Expectations were high after he secured a historic agreement for record spending on infrastructure and defense before even taking office, and made clear he intended to return Germany to the international stage as a major player.
But his own coalition has proven shaky since he took office on day one, when he became the first chancellor ever to require a second round of votes to secure formal approval of parliament.
In the summer, Merz also failed to marshal his conservatives behind the SPD’s agreed candidate for the constitutional court, dooming the vote.
“The government’s public image as ineffective, divided and poorly managed is becoming increasingly entrenched,” said Jan Techau at consulting firm Eurasia Group.
Hillje said these slip-ups demonstrated a “failure of political craftsmanship” by both Merz and the conservatives’ parliamentary leader Jens Spahn, who could have negotiated better with dissenters within their own parliamentary group.
Merz has won plaudits abroad for his strong engagement for Ukraine, but at home his popularity has sunk to around 25 percent, making him one of the least popular chancellors in memory.
Meanwhile combined support for the conservatives and SPD is down to 39 percent from 44.9 percent in February’s election, according to the latest poll by Forsa. The AfD, which surged into pole position in August, remains in the lead on 26 percent.
Fears the revolt could lead to the bill’s defeat, endangering the survival of the coalition, appear to have eased after the opposition Left party said it would abstain. But the dispute has revived doubts about Merz’s ability to manage his party, potentially leaving him dependent on the opposition to get the package through parliament.
His broad coalition of conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) has a slender majority of 12 votes in parliament — enough theoretically to pass the legislation, which maintains current pension levels.
But the conservatives’ youth faction, which has 18 votes, says the measure perpetuates a financially unsustainable system, leaving younger generations to foot the bill. Those legislators have left it unclear which way they will vote.
The Left Party said on Wednesday it would abstain from the vote to ensure the legislation passed in order to protect pensioners from what it called “power games.” Their abstention means the measure needs fewer votes to pass.
Political analysts say infighting over the package has heightened doubt about the coalition’s ability to push through key legislation following a series of blunders this year.
But if Merz has to also rely on the opposition to pass the bill, it would feed doubts about the mammoth tasks of reforming Germany’s ailing economy, Europe’s largest, and rebuilding its long-neglected military.
“Even if the coalition wins the vote, they will hardly gain stability, because the path to forming this majority was very shaky,” said political scientist Johannes Hillje.
“If they don’t have their own majority, then we would have a coalition crisis — as a government is defined by whether it can produce its own majorities.”
Such an outcome could further boost support for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which has surged to first place in nationwide polls in recent months and is on track to make strong gains in five state elections next year.
MERZ DISAPPOINTS HIGH EXPECTATIONS
During the election campaign, Merz, who had never previously held government office, railed against the infighting within the coalition of his SPD predecessor Olaf Scholz.
Expectations were high after he secured a historic agreement for record spending on infrastructure and defense before even taking office, and made clear he intended to return Germany to the international stage as a major player.
But his own coalition has proven shaky since he took office on day one, when he became the first chancellor ever to require a second round of votes to secure formal approval of parliament.
In the summer, Merz also failed to marshal his conservatives behind the SPD’s agreed candidate for the constitutional court, dooming the vote.
“The government’s public image as ineffective, divided and poorly managed is becoming increasingly entrenched,” said Jan Techau at consulting firm Eurasia Group.
Hillje said these slip-ups demonstrated a “failure of political craftsmanship” by both Merz and the conservatives’ parliamentary leader Jens Spahn, who could have negotiated better with dissenters within their own parliamentary group.
Merz has won plaudits abroad for his strong engagement for Ukraine, but at home his popularity has sunk to around 25 percent, making him one of the least popular chancellors in memory.
Meanwhile combined support for the conservatives and SPD is down to 39 percent from 44.9 percent in February’s election, according to the latest poll by Forsa. The AfD, which surged into pole position in August, remains in the lead on 26 percent.
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