Attorneys for Rümeysa Öztürk and government argue before district judge

Lawyers for detained Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk and counsel for the federal government argued before U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper on Thursday, carving out arguments over whether the case should be dismissed or moved due to issues around jurisdiction.

Adriana Lafaille of the ACLU of Massachusetts, one of seven attorneys present for Öztürk, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement strategized when “secretly whisking her away and making sure no one would know where she was.” Lafaille argued the intention of the habeas statute is “set up to prevent petitioners from forum shopping,” or choosing a court that might be more favorable to their case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter reiterated court documents noting that the decision to take Öztürk to Louisiana was made before her arrest, and due to lack of bed space in Massachusetts.

The government argues “there was no attempt to manipulate jurisdiction,” he said, adding that there is “no facility to detain female detainees in Massachusetts.”

Lafaille said there’s reason to believe there was bed space in New England detention centers at the time. She said plaintiffs sued in District of Massachusetts and named ICE’s acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde because law allows the plaintiff to “sue the immediate custodian where the custodian is,” and that even with Öztürk being transported outside of the state to New Hampshire and Vermont, Hyde still the person in charge as the head of the Boston field office.

The government argued the petition needed to be dismissed or moved to Louisiana because it is the “district of confinement.”

“The petitioner’s counsel did not know where she was. That’s not the same thing as ICE not being forthcoming about her location,” Sauter said, adding that Öztürk was still being transported.

Asked by Casper if Öztürk was told where she was going when she was detained, Sauter said no, and referred to protocol under an ICE manual for transport.

Casper said she was very “focused on the jurisdictional issue,” and would issue a decision at a later date.

Outside the courthouse, a few dozen people gathered to support the Tufts student. Attorney Mahsa Khanbabai read a statement from Öztürk:

After arresting Öztürk outside her home in Somerville on March 25, agents took her to New Hampshire and then Vermont, before finally moving her to a detention center in Louisiana. Öztürk had no contact with an attorney for over a day while she was being transferred.

Unaware of Öztürk’s exact location in the hours immediately after her arrest on March 25, Judge Indira Talwani ordered agents to keep her in Massachusetts.

The Trump administration argued that since Öztürk was quickly moved out of Massachusetts , the Boston court doesn’t have jurisdiction, given that when attorney Mahsa Khanbabai filed suit, she was already in transit to Vermont.

Multiple ICE detention facilities in the Northeastern region hold women detainees, wrote Heather Yountz, senior immigration staff attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute in a declaration to the court.

Those include one in New Hampshire, one in Maine, one in Vermont, and one in New York. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island has cells for overnight or short-term detention, as does the local field office in Burlington, Massachusetts. Yountz said in 17 years of experience, she doesn’t “recall seeing an immigrant arrested on civil immigration charges in eastern Massachusetts who has not been processed in Burlington before being sent to a detention facility.” ICE skipped this step, and sent Öztürk out of state almost immediately.

Öztürk’s attorneys contend that she was transferred to Louisiana without ICE notifying the court, her counsel, or Department of Justice counsel.

Öztürk’s arrest has prompted multiple protests, with supporters arguing her detention is a violation of her Constitutional rights .

She is a third-year doctoral student in Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University. In a court filing supporting Öztürk, the university said “at the time of her detention, Ms. Öztürk was in 'good immigration standing’ according to her record” in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, and that the school was not informed of her visa revocation until March 26.

Her case has resounded nationwide as an example of international students being targeted for their political views. When asked about her detention, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied it was solely based on her views but also referred to an op-ed she co-authored for a student newspaper.

There have been no charges brought by the government, but Rubio’s comment paired with that of the Department of Homeland Security sheds light on the government’s concerns.

Last week, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Öztürk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”

In a 2024 op-ed in a student newspaper with three other authors, Öztürk said Tufts’ response to students to calls for divestment from companies tied with Israel during the ongoing occupation of Palestine was “wholly inadequate and dismissive.” The piece never mentions Hamas. Tufts President Sunil Kumar said the school never received complaints about the opinion article, and that it did not violate any school or federal policies.

Last week, a judge ordered Öztürk can’t be removed from the U.S. until further court order. Öztürk is represented by Mahsa Khanbabai, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, CLEAR, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP.