NEW YORK – The ACLU of Vermont and Massachusetts is calling attention to the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University PhD student who has now been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention for more than six weeks. On Tuesday, May 6, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on whether a lower court’s order to transfer Öztürk to a facility in Vermont will proceed or be delayed.
Öztürk, a former Fulbright scholar researching child development, was arrested by ICE agents on March 25 while speaking with her mother by phone in Somerville, Massachusetts. According to the ACLU, she was taken without warning by plainclothes agents and moved through three facilities in three states before being placed in a detention center in Louisiana.
Her attorneys argue that the arrest and detention are retaliatory, linked directly to an op-ed she co-authored—a claim now at the heart of a First Amendment challenge. A Massachusetts federal judge initially ruled that the case should proceed in Vermont. A Vermont judge then ordered Öztürk transferred to a Vermont facility by May 1, but the government appealed. The Second Circuit has since agreed to hear arguments on both the government’s opposition and her legal team’s demand for immediate compliance.
The ACLU says that since her transfer to Louisiana, Öztürk has suffered significant health setbacks, including multiple severe asthma attacks. Her detention conditions—described as overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and unsanitary—have triggered increasingly severe episodes, with some attacks lasting up to 45 minutes. According to expert declarations submitted in court, her asthma is now considered poorly controlled and poses serious medical risks if she remains in detention.
One filing quotes a pulmonologist who warned that “continued exposure to environmental triggers” could result in “progressive symptoms, worsening disease control, and adverse outcomes—including potentially fatal asthma exacerbation.”
The federal supplemental memorandum supporting Öztürk’s release cites her six-week confinement as “harmful and unlawful,” and argues that it violates her constitutional rights. The court has already acknowledged that her First Amendment and due process claims are serious, and that the government has failed to provide any legitimate, non-retaliatory justification for her detention.
Öztürk’s legal team—which includes immigration attorney Mahsa Khanbabai, the ACLU of Vermont and Massachusetts, the national ACLU, the CLEAR Project at CUNY Law School, and the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP—has also objected to the government’s attempt to consolidate her case with that of another detained student, Mohsen Mahdawi. Both students are alleged to have been targeted for constitutionally protected political speech, and both teams oppose consolidation.
Öztürk’s attorneys argue that her detention violates the Mapp v. Reno standard for habeas relief, which permits release where substantial constitutional claims are raised and “extraordinary circumstances” exist. They emphasize that her current detention serves no immigration enforcement need and is instead punitive, retaliatory, and medically dangerous.
The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday before the Second Circuit. A link to the court proceeding was included in the ACLU’s public statement.
What did she write?
What country is she a citizen of?
What kind of visa does she have?
All not in the article.
What is meant by ‘retaliation’ ?
I am not at all clear to what degree the first amendment applies to non-citizens. Anyone?
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects “persons” rather than just citIzens