Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern met on Tuesday with Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University graduate student detained in an ICE facility in Basile, Louisiana.
The delegation traveled to the state to demand the release of Öztürk and former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and to inspect conditions at the two detention facilities where each remain in custody. Speaking outside of the facility holding Öztürk on Tuesday evening. Markey questioned why she was moved almost 1,500 miles from her home.
“They’ve done that in order to go to the single most conservative circuit court of appeals in the United States of America,” he said, adding that she still hasn’t been charged with a crime. “They are seeking to circumscribe the constitutional rights of Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil.”
Pressley said she met with women from various backgrounds, including artists and teachers. “They were just so afraid,” she told GBH News. Pressley met with 15 women in a dormitory before speaking with Öztürk. She said Öztürk first advocated for the other women detained at the facility before speaking about herself.
“She did not lead with, 'This is my concern for my case and what I need from you to help me,”’ said Pressley. “What she led with was gratitude that we were there, gratitude for the Somerville community, gratitude for her fellow detainees of which they have developed, you know, even if they’re trauma bonds, there are bonds that have been forged.”
Öztürk, she said, was wearing orange, a color that signifies the lowest level of security threat. In their conversation, Öztürk described poor medical care, constant asthma attacks, and poor sanitary conditions. Pressley said the women mentioned the facility was significantly cleaned up before the delegation arrived.
Pressley said she spent almost an hour in the medical unit in which claims were made that there were no pregnant detainees. She said she later met one detainee who is six months pregnant.
ICE didn’t reply to a request for comment about those claims or the visit.
The lawmakers echoed what advocates have asserted and said that both students are being targeted for their support of Palestinians during the war in Gaza.
“Both of these individuals are political prisoners. They don’t belong here,” said McGovern. “Words fail me to adequately describe how upset and how disturbed I am by what is happening not only to these two individuals and to others, but what is happening to our country.”
The group met with Khalil Tuesday morning, and with Öztürk in the afternoon. The delegation of Democrats was led by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana, and included Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. They also met with Wendy Brito, an asylum-seeker from El Salvador and New Orleans-area resident who was detained during a routine check-in with ICE last month.
Pressley and Markey joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren in writing top immigration enforcement officials Tuesday, demanding more information about Öztürk’s detention and why she was removed from Massachusetts.
Öztürk was detained outside her home in Somerville last month by masked ICE officers and hasn’t been charged with a crime. U.S. Sec. of State Marco Rubio implied that her student visa was revoked for co-authoring a pro-Palestinian op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper in 2024. She was then detained, he said, because she was no longer in the country legally.
A subsequent State Department investigation found no proof that Öztürk supported Hamas or holds antisemitic views.
Öztürk’s immigration case is being tried in Louisiana. Her habeas case is currently in Vermont district court because she was transported to that state for several hours before being transferred south, and was present there when her attorney filed her initial federal case. A federal judge in Vermont ordered that she be transferred back to that state by May 1 for upcoming court dates.
Öztürk, Pressley said, doesn’t believe she will be transferred to Vermont.
“She’s very matter of fact about things and expressed that she didn’t think it likely that that deadline would be met, that she expected the Trump administration to appeal,” Pressley said, noting that Öztürk is aware that her case has become high profile. “She’s a very big get and [the administration] will delay, delay, defy orders.”
Khalil’s wife, a U.S. citizen, gave birth to their first child on Monday without him. He was denied a furlough to be with her during the delivery.
