Latest news with #2ndU.S.CircuitCourtofAppeals
Yomiuri Shimbun
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Appeals Court Orders ICE to Return Detained Turkish Tufts University Student to Vermont
AP file photo Hundreds of people gather in Somerville, Mass., on March 26, 2025, to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a judge's order to bring a Turkish Tufts University student from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England for hearings to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released. Denying a government request for a delay, the three-judge panel of the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Rumeysa Ozturk after hearing arguments at a hearing Tuesday. Ozturk has been in Louisiana for over six weeks following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. The court ordered Ozturk to be transferred to ICE custody in Vermont no later than May 14. Immigration court proceedings for Ozturk, initiated in Louisiana, are being conducted separately and Ozturk can participate remotely, the court said. A district court judge in Vermont had ordered that the 30-year-old doctoral student be brought to the state for hearings to determine whether she was illegally detained. Ozturk's lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. The original deadline was May 1. A hearing on her motion to be released on bail was scheduled in Burlington for Friday, followed by another hearing on May 22. The Justice Department, which appealed that ruling, said that the immigration court in Louisiana has jurisdiction over Ozturk's case. The appeals court paused the transfer order last week as it considered an emergency motion filed by the government. But on Wednesday, the court did not agree to the request for a longer delay. The appeals court disagreed that the Vermont court was the wrong place to handle Ozturk's plea for release. It also said the government didn't show 'irreparable injury.' It said Ozturk's interest in participating in person in the Vermont hearings outweighs administrative and logistical costs to the government. 'The government asserts that it would face difficulties in arranging for Ozturk to appear for her immigration proceedings in Louisiana remotely. But the government has not disputed that it is legally and practically possible for Ozturk to attend removal proceedings remotely,' it said. A message seeking comment was emailed to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Immigration officials surrounded Ozturk as she walked along a street in a Boston suburb March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said. Ozturk's lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont. 'The government now argues that this transfer was improper. The government is wrong,' the appeals court wrote. Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university's response to student activists demanding that Tufts 'acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,' disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel. A State Department memo said Ozturk's visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions ''may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization' including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.' A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. 'No one should be arrested and locked up for their political views,' Esha Bhandari, one of Ozturk's attorneys, said in a statement. 'Every day that Rumeysa Ozturk remains in detention is a day too long. We're grateful the court refused the government's attempt to keep her isolated from her community and her legal counsel as she pursues her case for release.'
Toronto Star
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Appeals court orders ICE to return detained Turkish Tufts University student to Vermont
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a judge's order to bring a Turkish Tufts University student from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England for hearings to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released. Denying a government request for a delay, the three-judge panel of the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Rumeysa Ozturk after hearing arguments at a hearing Tuesday. Ozturk has been in Louisiana for over six weeks following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school's response to Israel's war in Gaza.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Appeals court orders detained Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk returned to Vermont
A federal appeals court panel Wednesday denied the Trump administration's request to lift a judge's order to physically transfer detained Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk from Louisiana to Vermont. The administration has swiftly moved foreign-born students it wants to deport to Louisiana, which would route their legal challenges through more friendly judicial venues. Within hours of plainclothes officers arresting Öztürk, a Turkish national and Tufts student who co-authored a pro-Palestinian op-ed in her student newspaper, on March 25 near her Somerville, Mass., home, authorities had moved her to Vermont and then Louisiana. U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III, an appointee of former President Clinton who serves in Vermont, had ruled April 18 that Öztürk's legal challenge could proceed in his court, because that's where she was located when her attorneys filed the petition. Sessions ordered the government physically return Öztürk to the state as the challenge proceeds. The administration appealed that decision to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which Wednesday declined to halt the order after hearing oral arguments a day earlier. 'Any confusion about where habeas jurisdiction resides arises from the government's conduct during the twenty-four hours following Öztürk's arrest,' the panel wrote. The new order sets a May 14 deadline for the government to return Öztürk to Vermont, where she will remain in custody, for now. A bail hearing is set for Friday. The unanimous three-judge panel comprised U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr., an appointee of former President George W. Bush; U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Carney, an appointee of former President Obama; and U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, an appointee of former President Biden. Öztürk is challenging her detention as unconstitutional retaliation under the First Amendment. Wednesday's order does not address those issues and instead rejects the Trump administration's threshold arguments it claimed defeats her case from being considered. Among other arguments, the government contended Öztürk's petition needed to name as a defendant the warden of the Vermont detention facility, since that person was the immediate 'custodian' overseeing the student's detention. The panel instead sided with Öztürk's lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, who stressed the government provided no information about their client's whereabouts as she was rapidly transferred following her arrest. 'The government cites no statute or case law for this extraordinary proposition, the practical effect of which would be that for some unspecified period of time after detention — seemingly however long the government chooses to take in transporting a detainee between states or between facilities — a detainee would be unable to file a habeas petition at all, anywhere,' the court wrote. 'Such a rule finds no support in the law and is contrary to longstanding tradition.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Hill
07-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Appeals court orders detained Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk returned to Vermont
A federal appeals court panel Wednesday denied the Trump administration's request to lift a judge's order to physically transfer a detained international Tufts University student from Louisiana to Vermont. The administration has swiftly moved foreign-born students it wants to deport to Louisiana, which would route their legal challenges through more friendly judicial venues. Within hours of plainclothes officers arresting Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national and Tufts student who co-authored a pro-Palestinian op-ed in her student newspaper, on March 25 near her Somerville, Mass., home, authorities had moved her to Vermont and then Louisiana. U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III, an appointee of former President Clinton who serves in Vermont, had ruled on April 18 that Öztürk's legal challenge could proceed in his court, because that's where she was located when her attorneys filed the petition. Sessions ordered that the government physically return Öztürk to the state as the challenge proceeds. The administration appealed that decision to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Wednesday declined to halt the order after hearing oral arguments a day earlier. 'Any confusion about where habeas jurisdiction resides arises from the government's conduct during the twenty-four hours following Öztürk's arrest,' the panel wrote. The new order sets a May 14 deadline for the government to return Öztürk to Vermont, where she will remain in custody, for now. A bail hearing is set for Friday. The unanimous three-judge panel comprised U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr., an appointee of the younger President Bush; U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Carney, an appointee of former President Obama; and U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, an appointee of former President Biden. Öztürk is challenging her detention as unconstitutional retaliation under the First Amendment. Wednesday's order does not address those issues and instead rejects the Trump administration's threshold arguments it claimed defeats her case from being considered. Among other arguments, the government contended Öztürk's petition needed to name as a defendant the warden of the Vermont detention facility, since that person was the immediate 'custodian' overseeing the student's detention. The panel instead sided with Öztürk's lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, who stressed the government provided no information about their client's whereabouts as she was rapidly transferred following her arrest. 'The government cites no statute or case law for this extraordinary proposition, the practical effect of which would be that for some unspecified period of time after detention — seemingly however long the government chooses to take in transporting a detainee between states or between facilities — a detainee would be unable to file a habeas petition at all, anywhere,' the court wrote. 'Such a rule finds no support in the law and is contrary to longstanding tradition.'
The Hill
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Appeals court grapples with efforts to deport international students Rumeysa Ozturk, Moshen Mahdawi
A federal appeals court on Tuesday grappled with the Trump administration's efforts to deport two international students over their participation in pro-Palestinian campus activism. The challenges mounted by Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student arrested over an op-ed she co-authored, and Moshen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student detained at his naturalization interview, have become flashpoints in the administration's sweeping crackdown on foreign students. On Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrestled with the government's bid to block orders releasing Mahdawi and returning Ozturk from Louisiana to Vermont as their legal challenges proceed. The administration's efforts largely rest on thorny jurisdictional issues that assert the federal courts had no authority to intervene. When the appeals panel attempted to wade into the First Amendment issues at the heart of the challenges, Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign sidestepped the questions. 'Does the government contest that the speech in both cases was protected speech?' asked U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr., an appointee of former President George W. Bush. 'Your Honor, we haven't — we have not taken a position on that,' Ensign responded. 'Our position is that the jurisdictional bars prevent adjudication of that.' 'Help my thinking along: Take a position,' Parker pressed. Ensign declined again, telling the judge, 'I don't have authority to take a position on that right now.' Since taking office, the Trump administration has taken major efforts to end legal status for international students who have voiced support for the pro-Palestinian movement. It began with detaining Mahmoud Khalil, an leader in the demonstrations at Columbia University. Weeks later, Ozturk entered the national spotlight when plainclothes officers arrested her near her Somerville, Mass., residence on March 25. Ozturk, a Turkish national, had co-authored an op-ed in her student newspaper criticizing her university's response to the war in Gaza. Within hours, authorities transported her to Vermont, and then Louisiana. The government appealed after a federal judge ruled that she must be physically returned to Vermont until her legal challenge is resolved. The appeals panel on Tuesday questioned in particular the government's position that Ozturk's attorneys needed to name as a defendant the warden of the Vermont detention facility, since that's where Ozturk was headed when the legal challenge was filed. Because they didn't, the courts must toss the challenge, the government argues. Esha Bhandari, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Ozturk, called that a 'breathtaking position,' stressing the group had no way to know where their client was when they rushed to court upon her arrest. 'Because of the government's own decision not to provide that information to you, they can essentially suspend the writ for as long as they choose, and until they decide that they can let you know who the custodian is,' Bhandari warned. Parker and U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Carney both raised concerns about what legal avenue would be available if the government had detained the wrong person, mistakenly believing it was Ozturk. 'Doesn't it give you pause about your arguments about the technicalities of the naming of the custodian?' asked Carney, an appointee of former President Obama. But Ensign, who spearheads the government's legal defense in many of its high-profile immigration disputes, pushed back on the concerns and stressed Ozturk's case raised 'unique' facts. 'That would have to be raised in the immigration court,' Ensign said. 'And I think that could, a mistaken identity one, could probably be raised and adjudicated rather quickly.' Unlike Ozturk, who remains in immigration custody, Mahdawi was released last week. A green card holder and leader in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last year, he was arrested April 14 during his naturalization interview, a final step in the process for him to gain U.S. citizenship. The Trump administration in its bid to deport him has stressed that a gun shop owner in 2015 told police that Mahdawi visited his store and indicated he used 'used to build modified 9mm submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.' Mahdawi acknowledges visiting the store but denies any such discussion. 'In our society, liberty is the norm. Respondents seek to upset that norm for Mr. Mahdawi,' said Naz Ahmad, an attorney at Main Street Legal Services, which represents him.
