On March 25, 2025, Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student at Tufts University, was grabbed, arrested, and detained in Somerville by plainclothes federal agents in apparent retaliation for an op-ed she co-authored in a student newspaper. Ms. Öztürk is a former Fulbright scholar who came to the United States on a student visa.
Her attorney immediately filed a habeas petition, and a judge ordered Ms. Öztürk not to be removed from Massachusetts without prior notice. For nearly 24 hours, Ms. Öztürk’s attorney was unable to locate her. On March 26, government counsel informed her that Ms. Öztürk had been transferred to Louisiana – over 1,300 miles from her community.
On April 4, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts Ms. Öztürk's federal case should continue in Vermont.
On April 18, the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont concurred that Ms. Öztürk’s federal case should continue in Vermont and ordered the government should transfer her back to a facility in Vermont no later than May 1. The government appealed, seeking to keep Ms. Öztürk imprisoned in a Louisiana detention center – away from her community and legal team. On May 7, after an appeals court heard arguments, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the government to comply with a lower court’s ruling to move Ms. Öztürk from a Louisiana detention center to a facility in Vermont.
After six and a half weeks in detention, the Vermont federal court ordered the release of Ms. Öztürk. She returned to her Massachusetts community to continue her studies while the case proceeds.
Ms. Öztürk is represented in federal court by Mahsa Khanbabai, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Massachusetts, ACLU of Vermont, CLEAR, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP.