The State Division’s findings got here in a memo issued days earlier than DHS kidnapped Öztürk anyway.
The State Division internally discovered no proof supporting the Trump administration’s reasoning for abducting and pushing to deport Tufts College graduate pupil Rümeysa Öztürk, new reporting finds, simply days earlier than immigration officers snatched her off the streets and took her to a horrific immigrant detention middle anyway.
The Washington Submit reported on Sunday, citing a State Division memo, that the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had not supplied any proof of Öztürk partaking in exercise labelled antisemitic or “terrorist” supporting. Moreover, searches of presidency databases didn’t flip up any proof of Öztürk taking part in terrorism-related exercise.
Because of this, Secretary of State Marco Rubio lacked grounds to revoke her visa below sure immigration provisions permitting him to take action. As an alternative, the division advisable a unique authority below the Immigration and Nationality Act that authorized consultants cited by the Submit say permit Rubio to revoke immigration standing that doesn’t require “a rationale and clarification and proof.”
The company advisable a “silent” revocation of Öztürk’s visa as a part of that authority, the memo reportedly says, which means that the administration wouldn’t notify her of the motion.
Days later, immigration brokers “disappeared” Öztürk, with footage exhibiting that they swarmed her on the road exterior of her residence and compelled her into an unmarked automotive.
She was shuffled through three places earlier than officers shipped her to an ICE facility in Louisiana infamous for its abuses over a thousand miles from her residence; whereas in detention, disadvantaged of obligatory medicine, she has suffered from four asthma attacks, her authorized staff has mentioned. A nurse on the Louisiana facility additionally reportedly forcibly eliminated Öztürk’s hijab at one level throughout a well being verify up, she mentioned in a press release filed in courtroom.
The memo’s findings bolster arguments by advocates for Palestinian rights and rights groups that the Trump administration’s actions in opposition to Öztürk are a plain violation of free speech rights. Reporting has revealed that the federal government’s arguments against Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil equally lack proof of felony exercise, and that Khalil is as a substitute being focused solely for his beliefs.
Regardless of Rubio’s suggestions otherwise, the State Division’s memo on Öztürk means that the administration’s solely declare in opposition to her was a single op-ed the 30-year-old PhD pupil had written urging Tufts to divest from Israel, which didn’t categorical help for Hamas or comprise any antisemitic sentiment. In February, Öztürk had been doxxed by the pro-Israel vigilante group Canary Mission, which referenced the op-ed.
DHS additionally cited the op-ed in a suggestion to the State Division written previous to the memo urging the company to look into the authority to revoke her visa.
“OZTURK engaged in anti-Israel activism within the wake of the Hamas terrorist assaults on Israelis on October 7, 2023,” learn the advice, reportedly written by Andre Watson, a prime DHS official. The op-ed, Watson wrote, “referred to as for Tufts to ‘disclose its investments and divest from firms with direct or oblique ties to Israel.’”
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