By Holly Ramer, Associated Press
On Friday, a federal judge ordered that a Turkish student from TUFTS university held by the immigration authorities in Louisiana be brought to the Vermont before May 1 for a hearing on what her lawyers say they are apparent reprisals for an opinion piece that she co-written in the student newspaper.
US District Judge William Sessions said he would hear Rumeysa Ozturk’s request to be released from detention. Her lawyers had asked for her to be released immediately, or at least brought back to Vermont.
The 30 -year -old doctoral student was taken by immigration officials while walking along a street in the suburbs of Boston in Somerville on March 25. After being taken to the New Hampshire and then to the Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an immigration and customs detention center in Basil, in Louisiana. An immigration judge rejected his deposit request on Wednesday.
Ozturk is one of several people related to American universities whose visas have been revoked or have been prevented from entering the United States after being accused of having attended demonstrations or publicly express supporting the Palestinians. An immigration judge in Louisiana judged that the United States can expel the student graduate from Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil, based on the federal government’s argument that he presents a risk of national security.
Ozturk lawyers dispute the legal authority for the detention of the ICE. They asked that it be immediately released from the guard, or in the alternative, returned to Vermont while her immigration affair continues.
A lawyer for the Ministry of Justice said that his business should be rejected, saying that the immigration court was competent.
Ozturk’s lawyers first placed a petition on his behalf in the Massachusetts. At the start, they didn’t know where she was. They said they hadn’t been able to speak to him up to more than 24 hours after his detention. Ozturk herself said she had made several requests to speak to a lawyer.
Ozturk was one of the four students who wrote an editorial in the Campus Journal, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to militant students demanding that Tofts “recognize the Palestinian genocide”, disclose its investments and unfold companies related to Israel.
Ozturk lawyers say that his detention violates his constitutional rights, in particular freedom of expression and regular procedure.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Security said last month, without providing evidence, that the surveys revealed that Ozturk was delivered to Hamas support, a terrorist group designated by the United States.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
