US Judge Questions Validity of Ozturk Detention – Another Student Detained

April 15, 2025 News
Six masked US immigration agents arrested a Turkish doctoral student in Massachussets. (Photo: video grab)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The only basis US authorities offered for revoking Ozturk’s visa, according to the report, was an opinion piece that criticized Tufts University’s response to student calls to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

A US federal judge has reportedly questioned whether the Trump administration would create a “constitutional crisis” by not releasing Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk from an immigration detention center if he concluded her detention was unlawful.

Judge William Sessions raised this possibility during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, on Monday, according to Al-Jazeera’s Arabic news site.

The report said Judge Sessions indicated he might order authorities to transfer Ozturk from the Louisiana detention center where she has been held for nearly three weeks to Vermont. Ozturk was briefly detained in Vermont after her arrest last month.

The judge heard arguments in the lawsuit filed by the 30-year-old student, who is challenging her detention after a federal judge in Massachusetts transferred the case to Vermont instead of dismissing it or sending it to Louisiana as the US Department of Justice had wanted, the report added.

Trump’s Crackdown

A widely circulated video captured Ozturk’s arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville.

Her arrest follows President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American college campuses who protested Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the report noted. Ozturk was also targeted by the pro-Israel website Canary Mission.

Acting Vermont Attorney General Michael Drescher argued that the case did not belong in Vermont and that the “broad discretion” Congress granted the executive branch to oversee immigration meant that Judge Sessions lacked the authority to release her, the Al Jazeera report noted.

‘Grave Area of Law’

Judge Sessions, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, acknowledged that the case involved a “grave area of ​​law,” but said Drescher’s argument raised a fundamental question about what the administration would do if he ruled in Ozturk’s favor, the report added.

“If the government then says, ‘No, she can’t be released because we have an immigration detention order, which cannot be violated, and she’s not going to be released,’ then we’re in a constitutional crisis,” Sessions reportedly said.

Drescher responded that he “doesn’t want to see this as suggesting that we won’t comply with a court order,” but said the law is clear that Ozturk must pursue her bail request with an immigration judge, not Sessions.

The only basis US authorities offered for revoking Ozturk’s visa, according to the report, was an opinion piece she co-authored that criticized Tufts University’s response to student calls to divest from companies with ties to Israel after the start of the Gaza war and to “recognize the genocide of the Palestinians.”

Her attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union argue that her arrest constitutes a clear violation of her free speech and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution, requiring her immediate release.

No Evidence

On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that days before Ozturk’s arrest, the State Department determined that the Trump administration “had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged.”

The report noted that the finding was contained in a March memo described to the paper and said the Secretary of State Macro Rubio “did not have sufficient grounds for revoking Ozturk’s visa under an authority empowering the top U.S. diplomat to safeguard the foreign policy interests of the United States.”

Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar who is in the final year of her PhD in child and human development, has not been charged with any crime.

Tufts University Support

Tufts University President Sunil Kumar filed a declaration in support of a motion submitted by Ozturk’s legal team in the US District Court in the state of Massachusetts, according to Anadolu.

“The University has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention,” Kumar said in the declaration.

The statement also noted, “Based on everything we know and have shared here, the university seeks relief so that Ms. Öztürk is released without delay so that she can return to complete her studies and finish her degree at Tufts University.”

Mohsen Mahdawi Detained

In a related case, U.S. District Judge William Sessions ordered the US president and other senior officials not to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Mahdawi from the United States or remove him from Vermont.

Immigration authorities arrested Mahdawi on Monday during a citizenship interview in Vermont. A legal permanent resident, Mahdawi entered an immigration office to complete the final step in his US citizenship application process. Instead, armed agents in civilian clothing, their faces covered, arrested him.

Following his arrest, three members of the US Congress called in a joint statement for his immediate release.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint, condemned the detention, calling it “immoral, inhumane and illegal.”

“Earlier today, Mohsen Mahdawi of White River Junction, Vermont, walked into an immigration office for what was supposed to be the final step in his citizenship process,” they wrote.

“Instead, he was arrested and removed in handcuffs by plainclothes, armed, individuals with their faces covered,” they added.

These individuals, the statement continued, “refused to provide any information as to where he was being taken or what would happen to him.”

“This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal. Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention,” they said.

‘Cruelty Must End’

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib also condemned Mahdawi’s arrest, saying, “DHS has kidnapped another Palestinian legal permanent resident, solely for his noble activism against the genocide.”

She added, “They targeted him at his appointment to finally become a US citizen. This cruelty must end. Free Mohsen now!

A student at Columbia University, Mahdawi was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. He plans to return to pursue a master’s degree in the fall of 2025, according to a request his lawyers filed to keep him in Vermont, the report noted.

“The government has made clear that it intends to respond and punish individuals like Mr. Mahdawi who have advocated for a ceasefire and an end to the bloodshed in Gaza,” his lawyers said in a court filing.

Mahmoud Khalil

Mahdawi is the ninth Columbia University student facing deportation as part of a campaign to remove international students involved in Palestinian solidarity movements, according to the Anadolu news agency.

His circumstances are similar to those of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student who was detained in the New York area on March 8 and transferred to a detention center in Louisiana for deportation.

A US immigration judge in Louisiana ruled on Friday that Khalil can be deported, allowing the Trump administration to continue its efforts to deport foreign students legally residing in the country, who are active in pro-Palestinian protests, without charges, the report added.

(PC, AJA, Anadolu)

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