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Getting Öztürked: Dissent Stifled in the Age of Trump [1]
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Date: 2025-05-08
When we consider Trump’s ongoing assault on civil liberties, the treatment of Rümeysa Öztürk offers a chilling case study in governmental lawlessness. Most have seen the video: six masked individuals in plain clothes surround her, escort her to an unmarked SUV, and disappear her from her Somerville, Massachusetts neighborhood on March 25, 2025. She had just left her home to attend an iftar dinner with friends to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The nature of her apprehension—targeted, silent, and swift—suggests premeditated surveillance and a coordinated operation. No warrant was presented. No charges were filed. She was detained at 5:15 p.m. The SUV departed by 5:49 p.m.
Attorney Mahsa Khanbabai was quickly retained to represent her. By 10:01 p.m., Khanbabai had filed a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In the meantime, Öztürk was first taken briefly to an ICE office in Methuen, Massachusetts, before being transferred—without notice—to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and then to the ICE field office in St. Albans, Vermont, where she arrived at 10:28 p.m. At 10:55 p.m., the court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring her removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice—unaware that she had already been moved across state lines.
Öztürk spent part of the night in a detention cell in Vermont before being flown from Burlington at 4:00 a.m. to Alexandria, Louisiana. She was then taken to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile. While the TRO may not have applied retroactively to her removal to Vermont, it clearly applied to her transfer to Louisiana, which ICE carried out without providing the required notice. That failure, in defiance of a federal order, underscores the secrecy and impunity with which this case was handled.
On March 28, Öztürk’s legal team—which now included the ACLU, ACLU of Massachusetts, and CLEAR—filed an amended habeas petition challenging her unconstitutional detention. This legal action came as details emerged that undermined the government’s case. A State Department memo, reported by The Washington Post (Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/13/tufts-student-rumeysa-ozturk-rubio-trump/), had concluded there was no evidence that she engaged in antisemitic speech or supported terrorism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio nonetheless revoked her visa on March 21, without informing her, citing an op-ed she co-authored that aligned with a temporarily banned student group. (Source:
https://www.aclum.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2025-04-11_petr_supp_exhibit_12_91-1.pdf) This rationale, based on viewpoint and association, amounts to prohibited discrimination.
On April 4, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ruled that Öztürk’s case should be transferred to Vermont, where she had been when the TRO was issued. Her request for bond was denied on April 16 by an immigration judge in Louisiana who deemed her a flight risk. But what would “flight” look like in this context—self-deportation? And isn’t that the very outcome ICE seeks?
Two days later, Judge William Sessions in Vermont ordered ICE to return her to that jurisdiction. The Trump administration appealed. On May 7, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal and ordered Öztürk returned to Vermont by May 14.
This woman has been “Öztürked”—singled out and stripped of constitutional protections under a flimsy pretext. The government has yet to identify a crime she has committed. Was her religion, ethnicity, or political expression the real trigger?
The only visible “offense” appears to be the op-ed she co-authored in the Tufts Daily on March 26, 2024, which criticized her university’s administration. Arresting her for this act—an instance of protected political speech—constitutes clear-cut viewpoint discrimination, a violation of the First Amendment. Such suppression must pass “strict scrutiny” in court, and it rarely does.
Her Fourth Amendment rights also appear violated. There’s no sign a warrant was issued, and she was likely subject to politically motivated surveillance. Seizing someone without probable cause and court oversight constitutes an unreasonable seizure. The video about what happened had the sense of an abduction rather than a lawful arrest.
The denial of Öztürk’s Fifth Amendment due process rights is also clear. ICE moved her across three states within 12 hours, effectively circumventing her legal recourse and the authority of a sitting federal court.
And finally, her Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights may have been violated. The circumstances suggest she was targeted not for her actions but for who she is: a Turkish Muslim student who dared speak out about Palestine.
Given these facts, ICE’s actions merit a full investigation. There should be accountability for individual agents, systemic reform, and court-imposed safeguards to prevent the repetition of such abuses.
In conclusion, “Getting Öztürked” symbolizes what happens when state power is weaponized against individuals for expressing dissent. It means being surveilled, detained, and transferred in secret—without due process, without transparency, and without charges—a complete abuse of the rule of law. Öztürk’s case is a stark warning: in the age of Trump, even constitutionally protected rights are no shield against a system bent on silencing political expression. What happened to her could happen to anyone the government chooses to target—and that should concern us all.
Day 109: days left to January 20, 2029: 1,353 days
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