Ozturk has been dropped at an immigration jail in Louisiana the place there’s “rampant abuse,” rights advocates say.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) is demanding the discharge of her constituent, Tufts College scholar 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 despatched to Louisiana,” said Pressley on social media. “She’s a peaceable protestor, grad scholar, and my constituent who has a proper to free speech and due course of. Now she’s a political prisoner. Free her now.”
In another post, Pressley added that the kidnapping is a “horrifying violation” of Ozturk’s constitutional rights.
“She have to be instantly launched. And we received’t stand by whereas the Trump Administration continues to abduct college students with authorized standing and assault our elementary freedoms,” the lawmaker stated.
Thousands in the Boston area protested in solidarity with Ozturk on Wednesday. The Turkish scholar, who was right here on an F-1 scholar visa that immigration officers have reportedly revoked, was on her way to interrupt her quick for Ramadan on Monday when a gaggle of six ICE brokers accosted her and compelled her into an unmarked automobile.
Chilling video footage of the incident reveals that the group was masked and in plainclothes, with some carrying hoods or hats. A number of didn’t seem like carrying something that recognized them as legislation enforcement brokers. In keeping with ICE’s on-line database, Ozturk is being held within the South Louisiana ICE Processing Middle, which has been flagged by immigrant rights groups as one among a number of amenities in Louisiana the place there’s “rampant abuse.”
Ozturk’s arrest got here simply days after she was doxxed by Zionist vigilante group Canary Mission. She was seemingly focused for an op-ed within the college’s scholar newspaper that she co-authored final yr, which urged Tufts to divest from Israel in accordance with calls from resolutions handed by the scholar authorities.
The Division of Homeland Safety has claimed, with out proof, that Ozturk was arrested as a result of she “engaged in actions in help of Hamas” — an accusation being hurled against supporters of Palestinian rights in an try and suppress opponents of Israel’s genocide and apartheid.
Senators representing Ozturk additionally raised alarm about her abduction. “This arrest is the newest in an alarming sample to stifle civil liberties,” stated Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D). “The Trump admin is concentrating on college students with authorized standing and ripping folks out of their communities with out due course of. That is an assault on our Structure and primary freedoms — and we’ll push again.”
“Trump despatched masked legislation enforcement officers to arrest Rumeysa Ozturk — a Tufts College grad scholar with authorized standing — and not using a prison cost. Disappearances like these are a part of Trump’s all-out assault on our primary freedoms. That is authoritarianism, and we won’t let this stand,” Sen. Ed Markey (D) wrote.
Ozturk is one among many scholar immigrants who’ve been disappeared by ICE brokers in current weeks, as a part of the Trump administration’s harrowing and probably extrajudicial blitz of immigration detentions and deportations.
ICE reportedly abducted one other PhD scholar, Alireza Doroudi, from his residence on Tuesday, at 5 am. Doroudi, who hails from Iran, is within the U.S. on an F-1 scholar visa and is learning mechanical engineering on the College of Alabama, in response to The Crimson White. Doroudi is listed as being in ICE custody on the company’s web site, however his location is undisclosed.
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