(14 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Burlington, Vermont – 14 April 2025
1. Microphones outside of court
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Jessie Rossman, Legal Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts:
"Well, the arguments that we made before the court today was arguing for Rumeysa’s immediate release. And, in the alternative, having her returned to Vermont so that the proceedings can continue. The court took that under advisement, and we’re going to wait to hear from the court but I think one of the things that is so critical is that we have seen both in the district of Massachusetts and in the district of Vermont how seriously the court are taking this issue and how quickly they’re moving. And that’s incredibly important because every single day that Rumeysa remains in detention is a violation of her constitutional rights."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahsa Khanbabai, attorney:
"She is stuck in detention for an op-ed. The government hasn’t provided any evidence to support this but for some memos that talk about the op-ed. And so that fact that she’s sitting in detention now for over two weeks is heartbreaking to me and to all of us as Americans because this is not what our country stands for. And what she has always stood for is to stand up for children, to make sure that they live in a peaceful, loving environment and she continues to advocate for that now while detained."
++WHITE FLASH++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jessie Rossman, Legal Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts:
"One of the things that is so detrimental about this case it of course the ongoing harm that Rumeysa herself is experiencing, the chill that she’s experiencing in terms of her speech, the disruption in terms of her ability to continue her education. And of course this also is sending a very clear message from the government that if you speak in a way that the administration disagrees with, you face the potential of punishment."
++EDIT ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
U.S. District Judge William Sessions took under advisement arguments over Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, a doctoral student taken by immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on March 25. After being taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana.
Ozturk’s lawyers are challenging the legal authority for ICE’s detention. They are asking that she be immediately released from custody, or in the alternative, be returned to Vermont for further proceedings.
A lawyer for the Justice Department said her case should be dismissed, saying the immigration court has jurisdiction. But Ozturk’s lawyers, who initially didn’t know where she was for hours and first petitioned for her release in Massachusetts, argued for her to be released from detention while her immigration case continues.
Lawyers for Ozturk in the immigration proceeding asked Monday that she be released on bond, her legal team in Vermont said.
Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
“She is stuck in detention for an op-ed,” her immigration attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, said outside the federal building in Burlington after Monday’s hearing.
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.
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