BOSTON — The case involving a Tufts University PhD student detained by ICE heads back to court Monday in Vermont.
“This is a bit unusual where you have sort of this big battle of the jurisdictions, what state is it going to be in, immigration court or regular United States District Court,” said Peter Elikann, a Boston 25 News legal analyst.
Rumeysa Ozturk has been in ICE custody in Louisiana for nearly three weeks after the government revoked her student visa.
Her attorneys are pushing for her to be released.
They argue a Vermont judge can make that decision.
“They are claiming that this is really what we call ‘judge shopping,’ where they’re pulling all these cases into Louisiana because they think it’ll be a more sympathetic court there,” said Elikann.
Elikann says a lot of immigrants detained by ICE have been sent to Louisiana, where the judges may be more sympathetic to the views of the Trump administration.
Ozturk was arrested by ICE on March 25 in Somerville, MA.
Attorneys for the government confirm she was taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont overnight before she was flown to Louisiana, where she remains in ICE custody.
Ozturk’s attorneys filed a petition for her release while she was in Vermont, so they’re hoping the case will continue there.
“If the Vermont judge were to say, we’re keeping jurisdiction and I’m going to grant her bail, so I’m ordering her release from the Louisiana ICE facility, are the government lawyers going to argue against that and appeal that to the next level?” said Elikann.
The Department of Homeland Security has said Ozturk has shown support for a terrorist organization, so her visa was revoked at the discretion of the Secretary of State.
Ozturk’s lawyers argue she’s being targeted for an op-ed piece she co-authored for the student paper at Tufts about the war in Gaza, and that this case is over the right to free speech.
“It is unprecedented that we have people here in the country who are here legally, and yet because their views are not the same as those of the current presidential administration that they can have their legal status revoked,” said Elikann.
Oral arguments for Ozturk’s case will be at 9:30 AM Monday at a court in Burlington, Vermont.
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