A Louisiana federal immigration judge denied bond to Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk on Wednesday afternoon. The judge determined that she was a “flight risk and a danger to the community,” according to a supplemental document filed by her legal counsel in her Vermont proceedings. Öztürk’s case was transferred to Vermont on April 4, ordered by a federal judge in Massachusetts.
Öztürk’s lawyers wrote that the judge’s decision was based solely on a memorandum presented by the Department of Homeland Security, which concluded that the op-ed Öztürk co-authored “may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization.”
Her lawyers argued in the new Vermont filing that Öztürk has been “unconstitutionally arrested and detained” in retaliation for the views she expressed in the op-ed and petitioned for an order to move her to Vermont by Friday.
Öztürk’s counsel stated that she has had six asthma attacks since she was detained — a case for sending her to Vermont, where she could receive independent assistance from a doctor who could provide evidence as to the risks that her continued detention could have.
In a Vermont hearing on Monday morning, lawyers argued for the release of Rümeysa Öztürk before a federal judge at Vermont’s district court. Öztürk’s lawyers held that U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III had jurisdiction over the habeas petition, while a Justice Department lawyer argued that Vermont does not have jurisdiction under federal immigration law.
When Öztürk was detained on March 25 by federal authorities, she was transported to New Hampshire and then Vermont within hours of her apprehension. Öztürk was moved without notice to her legal counsel, who filed the habeas petition in Massachusetts without knowledge of her actual location.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already transported Öztürk to New Hampshire when a judge — without knowing that Öztürk was no longer in Massachusetts — ordered, on the evening of March 25, against her removal from the state without proper notice. She is currently detained at a federal immigration facility in Louisiana.
Michael Drescher, a lawyer representing the Justice Department, argued that Öztürk must seek release through the immigration removal proceedings. He argued that Congress has given the executive branch, not the courts, discretionary authority over deportations. Drescher stated that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, habeas relief is not available in contexts where immigration law is being administered.
Öztürk’s lawyers argued that the relief of her habeas petition — which requests her release from detention in Louisiana — would not interfere with removal proceedings in immigration courts. They argued that the violations of her First and Fifth Amendment rights on the evening of her arrest justified her release on bail.
One of her attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, Noor Zafar, said that the hearing focused on the constitutionality of Öztürk’s detention and arrest and that the Board of Immigration Appeals does not have the authority to use those claims within her removal proceedings.
