Pressley: Tufts’s Ozturk Is a “Political Prisoner” Who Was “Kidnapped” By ICE
Ozturk has been brought to an immigration jail in Louisiana where there is “rampant abuse,” rights advocates say.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) is demanding the release of her constituent, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after the PhD candidate was “kidnapped in plain sight” on Tuesday and locked away in a horrific immigration jail in Louisiana.
“Rumeysa Ozturk was kidnapped in plain sight and sent to Louisiana,” said Pressley on social media. “She’s a peaceful protestor, grad student, and my constituent who has a right to free speech and due process. Now she’s a political prisoner. Free her now.”
In another post, Pressley added that the abduction is a “horrifying violation” of Ozturk’s constitutional rights.
“She must be immediately released. And we won’t stand by while the Trump Administration continues to abduct students with legal status and attack our fundamental freedoms,” the lawmaker said.
Thousands in the Boston area protested in solidarity with Ozturk on Wednesday. The Turkish student, who was here on an F-1 student visa that immigration officials have reportedly revoked, was on her way to break her fast for Ramadan on Monday when a group of six ICE agents accosted her and forced her into an unmarked car.
Chilling video footage of the incident shows that the group was masked and in plainclothes, with some wearing hoods or hats. Several did not appear to be wearing anything that identified them as law enforcement agents. According to ICE’s online database, Ozturk is being held in the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, which has been flagged by immigrant rights groups as one of several facilities in Louisiana where there is “rampant abuse.”
Ozturk’s arrest came just days after she was doxxed by Zionist vigilante group Canary Mission. She was seemingly targeted for an op-ed in the school’s student newspaper that she co-authored last year, which urged Tufts to divest from Israel in accordance with calls from resolutions passed by the student government.
The Department of Homeland Security has claimed, without evidence, that Ozturk was arrested because she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas” — an accusation being hurled against supporters of Palestinian rights in an attempt to suppress opponents of Israel’s genocide and apartheid.
Senators representing Ozturk also raised alarm about her abduction. “This arrest is the latest in an alarming pattern to stifle civil liberties,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D). “The Trump admin is targeting students with legal status and ripping people out of their communities without due process. This is an attack on our Constitution and basic freedoms — and we will push back.”
“Trump sent masked law enforcement officers to arrest Rumeysa Ozturk — a Tufts University grad student with legal status — without a criminal charge. Disappearances like these are part of Trump’s all-out assault on our basic freedoms. This is authoritarianism, and we will not let this stand,” Sen. Ed Markey (D) wrote.
Ozturk is one of many student immigrants who have been disappeared by ICE agents in recent weeks, as part of the Trump administration’s harrowing and potentially extrajudicial blitz of immigration detentions and deportations.
ICE reportedly abducted another PhD student, Alireza Doroudi, from his home on Tuesday, at 5 am. Doroudi, who hails from Iran, is in the U.S. on an F-1 student visa and is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama, according to The Crimson White. Doroudi is listed as being in ICE custody on the agency’s website, but his location is undisclosed.