Politics
Sen. Ed Markey and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern spoke with Tufts grad student Rümeysa Öztürk and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
Massachusetts representatives traveled to Louisiana to visit Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts graduate student who was detained by ICE in Somerville, and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil — both subjects of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian advocacy on college campuses.
“Both of them are right now being imprisoned here in Louisiana,” Sen. Ed Markey said during a press conference. “They are not being charged with a crime. There is no evidence that could convict them of a crime. ICE just feels through the Trump administration that they have a right to take people.”
Markey was joined by Rep. Jim McGovern, of Worcester, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, of Boston, from the Massachusetts delegation, as well as Louisiana Rep. Troy Carter and Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson.
“Both of these individuals are political prisoners. They don’t belong here,” McGovern said.
The lawmakers said that Öztürk and Khalil’s First Amendment and due process rights are being violated.
Öztürk, a native of Turkey and former Fulbright scholar, is pursuing her PhD in child and human development at Tufts University. Last month, plain-clothed ICE agents detained her as she left her apartment to break her Ramadan fast with friends.
“She was hungry and denied food. She was thirsty and denied water. She was manhandled. She was shackled,” Pressley said. “She was denied the opportunity to seek legal counsel, to call her attorneys. Disappeared, abducted from her life and her family and the community that she’s known.”
Her arrest is apparently in retaliation for co-authoring an op-ed in The Tufts Daily last year that called for divestment from Israel and for university administrators to more vocally acknowledge human rights abuses in Gaza.
When Öztürk was arrested, she was first moved to New Hampshire, then to Vermont, then brought to Louisiana. She’s suffered multiple asthma attacks and hasn’t received the medical attention she needs or deserves, Markey said.
Markey said the Trump administration transferred Öztürk to Louisiana to put her behind a conservative judge. Most recently, an immigration judge in Louisiana denied her bond, while her lawyers are fighting to have her returned to Vermont.
Khalil, who had a green card, was a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia University’s encampment last year. An Louisiana immigration judge determined earlier this month that he can be deported as a national security risk.
The lawmakers also slammed the Department of Homeland Security for denying Khalil his request to attend the birth of his first child. His wife, an American citizen, went into labor Sunday and gave birth to a son.
“It is shameful and it is a shame,” Pressley said, “and we’re here to tell this administration, who’s operating with abuse of power, that it will not go unchecked.”
The lawmakers said they will give a full update on their visit with Öztürk, Khalil, and other ICE detainees at a press conference Wednesday.
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