Federal Appeals Court Considers Transfer of Tufts Student Detained Over Free Speech
A panel of federal appeals court judges is deliberating the potential transfer of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts graduate student from Turkey, from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Louisiana to Vermont. Tuesday’s hearing focused on whether this transfer, ordered by a federal judge two weeks ago, should proceed ahead of a hearing regarding the legality of her arrest and detention.
Öztürk, along with Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student, has been at the center of discussions related to First Amendment rights. Both were detained after expressing pro-Palestinian sentiments at campus events, leading to the revocation of their immigration documents—Öztürk’s visa and Mahdawi’s green card. During the proceedings, Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr. questioned the government’s stance on the protection of their speech, to which Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign replied that the government had not formally contested the issue.
Öztürk was apprehended by plainclothes ICE agents in Somerville on March 25, swiftly moved through several states without access to legal counsel. The hearing revealed, for the first time, that the warden of the Vermont ICE facility was involved when Öztürk’s case was initially filed in Massachusetts and later transferred to Vermont. The government contends that Öztürk’s attorneys must name the warden as a defendant, a step they could not take due to lack of communication with their client.
The three-judge panel, comprised of Alison J. Nathan, Susan L. Carney, and Barrington D. Parker Jr., continues to examine the implications surrounding free speech and immigration law in relation to the ongoing cases.
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