Turkish student moved to Vermont before judge's order
BOSTON
A Tufts University doctoral student from Türkiye who was detained by immigration authorities had been moved to Vermont by the time a federal judge ordered authorities to keep her in Massachusetts, lawyers for the U.S. government said.
Rümeysa Öztürk, 30, was 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 remote Basile, Louisiana. There was no available space to detain her in New England, the Justice Department lawyers said.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston scheduled a hearing for Thursday on the matter.
Casper, responding to a petition filed last week by Öztürk's lawyers, issued a ruling on March 28 that she can't be removed from the United States “until further order of this court.”
But on April 1, lawyers for the Justice Department argued that the judge lacks jurisdiction to decide Öztürk's case. They said Öztürk's lawyers had to file her petition in the jurisdiction where she was confined, according to court paperwork. They said the case should be dismissed or transferred to Louisiana, and that any challenge belongs in immigration court.
Öztürk "is not without recourse to challenge the revocation of her visa and her arrest and detention, but such challenge cannot be made before this court,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter wrote. The filing mentioned an April 7 appearance for Öztürk before an immigration judge in Louisiana.
Her lawyers pushed back, saying that at the time they filed the petition, they had no way of knowing where she was.
"Ms. Öztürk's counsel was kept in the dark about her client’s whereabouts as ICE quickly and quietly moved her to three separate locations in three different states on her way to Louisiana," the attorneys wrote in a response filed on April 2. “ICE’s deliberate and secretive hopscotch approach is an unlawful attempt to game the system.”
Attorneys also noted the petition was filed while Öztürk was in a vehicle within the control of Massachusetts-based ICE officials, making the Boston court the appropriate venue. But they said if the judge disagrees, the case should be moved to Vermont.
Öztürk's lawyers asked the judge to order that she be immediately returned to Massachusetts and released from custody.
Öztürk is among several people with ties to American universities who attended demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians during the war in Gaza.
