The Massachusetts U.S. District Court judge handling the case of detained Tufts University international student Rümeysa Öztürk has ordered the case be transferred to federal court in Vermont.
In a ruling issued Friday, Judge Denise Casper rejected the federal government’s effort to dismiss or transfer the case on jurisdictional grounds.
In Thursday’s hearing on the case aimed at winning Öztürk’s release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter argued that a Massachusetts court was an inappropriate venue because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already moved Öztürk out of state by the time her lawyers filed for her release. Sauter argued that alternatively, the case could be heard in the Western District of Louisiana, where Öztürk is currently being held.
The ACLU of Massachusetts, which is helping represent Öztürk, had urged Casper to keep the case in Massachusetts, or else transfer it to the District of Vermont.
In the ruling, Judge Casper wrote that Vermont was the appropriate venue, since that’s where Öztürk was in custody when the case was filed.
ICE was driving Öztürk through Vermont at 10:01 p.m. on March 25 when attorney Mahsa Khanbabai filed an initial complaint in the U.S. District of Massachusetts seeking her client’s release. Khanbabai and Öztürk’s family were unaware of her location at the time.
The Tufts doctoral student had been arrested near her Somerville apartment at about 5:15 p.m. that day. According to the timeline provided by the federal government, she left Somerville in ICE custody at 5:49 p.m., stopped in Methuen, then departed at 6:36 p.m. for Lebanon, New Hampshire. Öztürk was taken from there to the ICE field office in St. Albans, Vermont, arriving at 10:28 p.m.
In response to Khanbabai’s complaint, at 10:55 p.m., a federal judge in Boston ordered ICE to keep Öztürk in Massachusetts — well after she’d been moved out of the state.
ICE transferred her to Louisiana the next morning.
Öztürk’s legal team is praising Casper’s decision to transfer the case to Vermont.
“The Court rightfully, and with appropriate urgency, rejected the Trump administration’s attempted manipulation to move Rümeysa Öztürk’s case to Louisiana,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts.
She said the “speed of this ruling speaks volumes, and this decision is a crucial next step.”
In her ruling, Casper wrote the transfer to Vermont would be made “in the interest of justice.” She also noted she was rejecting the federal government’s attempt to move the case to Louisiana because Öztürk was not detained there at the time the case seeking her release was filed.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts said it does not have comment at this time.
It is not yet clear if Öztürk will remain in custody in Louisiana while her case plays out in Vermont.
