Latest news with #Öztürk
Boston Globe
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
State Department memo says Rümeysa Öztürk has no association to antisemitism or terrorism
Armstrong reviewed the document as he made his decision to revoke Öztürk's visa, he said. The memo is not available to the public, but attorneys in the case are able to review it. Advertisement Öztürk, who is from Turkey, was 'A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security,' the statement said. Advertisement Öztürk, In court on Friday, Conlon asserted that the action memo laid out that DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Homeland Security Investigations (which is an arm of ICE) have 'not provided any evidence' about Öztürk taking part in anti-semitic activity or publicly expressing support for a terrorist group. Öztürk was held Armstrong previously testified that Öztürk was not informed that her visa was being revoked, following guidance from ICE officials. Over the past two weeks, new revelations have come to light during the trial about the federal government's effort to investigate, surveil, and arrest student protesters involved in Pro-Palestinian activism, including: Öztürk, Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar and professor at Georgetown University, and Columbia University student Yunseo Chung. Last week, an immigration official Advertisement On Friday, Conlon pressed Armstrong about the reasons behind the decision to revoke Öztürk's visa, given that DHS did not find evidence linking her to terrorist groups, according to the memo described in court. Armstrong testified that it was 'not just' an op-ed that Öztürk co-wrote in the student newspaper, calling on Tufts to divest from companies with ties to Israel, that led the State Department to take away her visa. What was included in his decision 'were her actions,' Armstrong said, 'which are not speech,' including protesting Tufts' relationship with Israel. He also alleged that she was associated with Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that he said has created a 'hostile environment for Jewish students' on the Tufts camps, and has indicated support for a designated terrorist organization. He did not point to evidence of what he called her 'connection' with the group. Armstrong acknowledged that Öztürk's case was 'complicated,' and said that he had spent a significant amount of time reviewing it. 'I thought long and hard about Ms. Öztürk's case,' Armstrong said. 'A revocation is a serious decision.' Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at
Boston Globe
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Rümeysa Öztürk describes ICE detention in op-ed: ‘All we wanted was to be seen as human again.'
'All we wanted was to be seen as human again,' she wrote. 'We felt invisible, stripped of our identity as breathing and living human beings.' Öztürk was the basis of her arrest was A career immigration official testified in federal court Tuesday Advertisement In the op-ed, Öztürk described her fear as she was 'suddenly surrounded and grabbed by a swarm of masked individuals,' handcuffed, and shoved into an unmarked car. 'Thousands of questions crept up in the hours that passed,' she wrote. 'Who were these people? Had I been a good enough person if today was my final day? I was relieved to have finished filing my taxes, but I couldn't shake the thought of a book I needed to return to the library. I regretted not calling my grandparents and friends that day. My mom had heard my scream on the phone when they were taking me.' Advertisement Over the next few days, she was transferred to several immigration facilities in New England, Georgia, and finally, an all-women facility in Basile, La., she recounted. Öztürk described the difficult living conditions, trying to sleep in the same 'freezing' cell with 23 other women, under constant fluorescent lighting. She said random headcounts were often conducted in the early hours of the morning. 'For the first time in my life, I realized that sleep — real sleep — is actually a luxury,' she wrote. She said her asthma was exacerbated by the 'damp, dusty, and overcrowded' conditions, and described crying for help when she had a 'severe asthma attack.' She said officers did not respond until women began banging on the windows to get their attention. Ozturk said she struggled to celebrate the end of Ramadan. She said that a Catholic detainee told her 'even God cannot hear us here,' although the woman prayed night and day just the same. 'I asked her if it was God who could not hear us, or if it was people like me before this experience, who either know nothing about the immigration detention system or prefer to ignore or forget about it,' Ozturk wrote. But Öztürk said that the women in the facility formed a solidarity, 'providing shoulders to cry on, prayers to cling to, and hugs filled with compassion.' Detainees included immigrants from countries such as Colombia, Armenia, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, Ozturk said. Among their ranks were a Pilates instructor, a visual arts teacher, a professional violinist, and a singer with 'almost a million' social media followers. Advertisement 'Many women wept day and night, longing for their families,' she wrote. 'My friends showed me letters from their young children, accompanied by sweet photos of them and mischievous pictures of their pets. Some of the children are in their home countries; some are waiting in different states with other caregivers; and others have been taken into the foster care system. I learned that women have even been separated from their babies after giving birth.' Öztürk was ordered released by a Vermont judge on May 9, who noted that she had no criminal record and said her continued detention was steadily worsening her asthma. She In the op-ed, she said she left a letter for the other women in the facility under her bed, thanking them for their compassion. 'I learned from them that even in the most inhumane conditions, human dignity cannot be stripped away from human beings unless they decide to give up,' she wrote. 'I learned from these strong women what solidarity looks like.' Camilo Fonseca can be reached at
NBC News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Homeland Security agent said he had to ask a lawyer if Öztürk's arrest was legal after orders to prioritize her case
During a federal trial challenging the Trump administration's efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Tuesday testified that the orders to target Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Öztürk were so unconventional that he had to seek confirmation on the legality of the arrest. Patrick Cunningham, the agent who oversaw the arrest of Öztürk in March, told the court in Boston that he had consulted a Department of Homeland Security attorney to check that arresting her based on her visa being revoked was legal. Cunningham also said he had no knowledge of any criminal offense she had committed. Öztürk, who was in ICE custody for two months, was released in May. 'When you receive information from headquarters at this level, top down, you make the assumption that it's legally sufficient,' Cunningham, who is part of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations arm in Boston, told the court. 'But I did contact our legal counsel to ensure that we're on solid legal ground.' Öztürk's attorney Mahsa Khanbabai said in an email to NBC News that the arrest has 'never been about immigration enforcement. Rather, it 'has always been about retaliation and punishment on protected speech,' Khanbabai said. 'We are confident the courts will continue to uphold the basic principles of a just and free society.' Cunningham's testimony is part of the second week of a trial in which five scholar groups, including the Harvard University faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, are alleging that the detentions of Öztürk and others and attempted deportations violated the First Amendment. Öztürk was grabbed by agents off a Massachusetts street in late March, with the DHS accusing her of engaging 'in activities in support of Hamas.' The doctoral student co-wrote an op-ed in the student newspaper last year that called on Tufts to 'acknowledge the Palestinian genocide' and divest from companies with ties to Israel. The university has said the essay did not violate its policies. Cunningham was among four Homeland Security agents to testify in the case that day. He told the court that his role involved sharing information that HSI knew about Öztürk to 'effectively put agents on the street and try and locate her.' He also said that he had read the op-ed Öztürk had written prior to the arrest. 'I didn't see anything in the op-ed suggesting she committed a crime,' Cunningham said. Cunningham, whose career largely dealt with drug enforcement and investigations into money laundering, said that he had little to no previous experience with arrests based on visa revocations. But after Trump's inauguration in January, the agency held several meetings about these types of arrests and how they now would be a priority. Öztürk's arrest was based on orders that came from DHS headquarters, he said. 'I can't recall a time that it's come top down like this with a visa revocation— under my purview anyway,' he said. 'With the superiors that were inquiring about this, it made it a priority, because we work for them.' Öztürk was moved to three locations after her arrest before she ended up in an ICE facility in rural Louisiana. Judge William K. Sessions III in Massachusetts ordered her release in May. 'I am not going to put a travel restriction on her, because, frankly, I don't find that she poses any risk of flight,' Sessions said. The trial is expected to conclude this week, with closing arguments slated for Friday. Earlier in the proceedings, Peter Hatch, a senior DHS investigations official, revealed in a bombshell testimony that the names of most of the student protesters who were flagged to the agency for analysis came from the anonymous group Canary Mission. The controversial organization publishes a detailed database of students, professors and others who it says have shared anti-Israel and antisemitic viewpoints. For years, the group has drawn allegations of doxxing and harassment, 'I can say that Canary Mission is not part of the U.S. government. It is not information that we would take as an authoritative source, and we do not work with the individuals who create the website,' Hatch told the court. 'I don't know who creates the website. We don't have a relationship with the creators of the website.'
Boston Globe
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
In court testimony, Boston ICE official recalls pressure from above to arrest Rümeysa Öztürk
'We made it a priority,' Cunningham said. He also testified that, in the months after President Trump was inaugurated in January, Homeland Security Investigations has been prioritizing immigration arrests more than before, and that 'the prioritization of that work has certainly increased.' The testimony took place during the seventh day of trial in a lawsuit brought by higher education organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, over the Trump administration's policies of arresting and detaining noncitizen students and others engaged in pro-Palestinian activism. Advertisement Öztürk was US District Judge William G. Young will decide whether the lawsuit plaintiffs proved their claims that the administration's effort to revoke the visas of pro-Palestinian protesters and deport them is a violation of their First Amendment rights and the Administrative Procedure Act. Advertisement In court on Tuesday, multiple top ICE officials from the Boston, New England, New York and Washington D.C. offices of Homeland Security Investigations said that in the past six months under Trump, they were told to prioritize immigration enforcement cases, as opposed to criminal cases, which they had previously focused on in the past. Cunningham acknowledged that prior to this change, he largely had no experience with these kinds of cases. Cunningham consulted with an attorney from ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor prior to Öztürk's arrest, to make sure that the agency was on 'solid legal ground' in the operation, he said. Last week, Peter Hatch, an assistant director of an ICE intelligence office, testified that analysts were directed to look at a pro-Israel website for leads on investigating protesters because it contained more than 5,000 names of people who publicly supported the Palestinian cause. The team looking into the protesters was internally referred to as Tiger Team, Hatch said. Hatch disclosed that the agency An attorney for the plaintiffs displayed in court a report on Öztürk, titled 'Report of Analysis,' which was ICE's subject profile of Öztürk. It was the first time the report, which was only partially unveiled, had been disclosed. Advertisement On Tuesday, Cunningham, who said he supervised Öztürk's arrest, told the court that he received an email which included a memo from the Department of State as an attachment, which said that Öztürk's visa had been revoked. The email also included a copy of an op-ed Öztürk co-wrote in the student newspaper calling on Tufts to divest from companies with ties to Israel. He could not remember receiving a similar communication in his time at HSI, he testified. He said that 'there were a lot of hands in fishbowl' in planning for and carrying out the arrest. In response to questions, Cunningham said he did not see anything in the op-ed that indicated evidence of a crime. Michael Tremonte, an attorney for the plaintiffs, asked Cunningham if there had been a decision made by top officials to keep Öztürk's visa's revocation a secret from her. 'We did not plan on alerting her to the fact that her visa had been revoked,' Cunningham responded. On Friday, John Armstrong, a top official in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which is part of the state department, also testified that Öztürk was not informed that her visa was being revoked, on guidance from ICE officials. 'ICE had made a request that we not inform so that they could take action to remove Ms. Öztürk from the United States,' Armstrong said. Armstrong said that the state department typically lets visa holders know that their visa is being revoked. Cunningham testified that he was the agent who signed the arrest warrant for ICE to ultimately apprehend Öztürk, and that the cause for her arrest was her visa revocation. which would make her in violation of immigration law. Advertisement During Cuningham's testimony, Young, the judge, noted that 'not everyone who has their visa revoked is arrested.' 'I don't think it's at issue whether there was legal authority to take Ms. Öztürk into custody,' Young said. 'The question is a broader question as to the reasons for all that.' Young said that he was in possession of various documents related to Öztürk's arrest, but that he could not share them with the plaintiffs — along with some documents related to other arrests of students by ICE — because a federal appeals court has ordered they remain sealed, while weighing a petition by the government to declare them privileged information. On Tuesday, several other ICE agents who were involved in the arrests of students who had expressed Pro-Palestinian views testified, including agents who planned the apprehension of Mahmoud Khalil in New York, Mohsen Mahdawi in Vermont, and Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar and professor at Georgetown University. The agents testified that supervisors had conveyed to them that the Department of State notified their offices that these scholars were in violation of immigration law, and that resources should be swiftly allocated to locate and eventually arrest them. Shelley Murphy of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Angela Mathew contributed to this report. Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at
Boston Globe
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
ICE report revealed in court shows the agency used Canary Mission information to target Rümeysa Öztürk
The title of the report page read: 'Canary Mission profile on Rümeysa Öztürk stating her participating in anti-Israel in March 2024.' Advertisement On the profile was a photo of Öztürk the Canary Mission had published, along with what the website's authors characterized of her involvement in the Pro-Palestinian movement on campus. The other attachment included in the report, and shown to the court, was a copy of the op-ed that Öztürk co-authored. Peter Hatch, an assistant director for the Office of Investigations within the Department of Homeland Security, was the main witness on Thursday. Hatch assists in leading an office within ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit, and told the court over the past few days that he helped lead an operation internally referred to as Tiger Team, which looked into more than 5,000 protesters — many listed on the Canary Mission. Advertisement Conlon, an attorney for the plaintiffs, pressed Hatch on the protest-related activities from Öztürk that are cited in the report. 'Is it fair to say that this ROA [report of analysis] on Ms. Öztürk includes no allegations from her protest activity apart whats on the face of it?' she asked, adding if he was aware or any other allegations related to her protest activity.' 'I believe this is what the analysts could find related to Ms. Öztürk,' Hatch responded. The full report remains under seal, and was only shown briefly in court on Thursday, along with the reports of other students who expressed support for the pro-Palestinian movement: Mahmoud Khalil, Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar and professor at Georgetown University, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Columbia University student Yunseo Chung. Shelley Murphy can be reached at
