Appeals Court Orders Trump Administration to Transfer Rümeysa Öztürk to Vermont

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today denied the Trump administration’s attempt to further delay Rümeysa Öztürk’s transfer to Vermont. The appeals court ordered the government to comply with a lower court’s ruling to move Ms. Öztürk from a Louisiana detention center to a facility in Vermont. The government must do so within one week.

“No one should be arrested and locked up for their political views. Every day that Rümeysa Öztürk 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,” said Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

Ms. Öztürk, a former Fulbright scholar and current Tufts University Ph.D. student researching child development, has been held in a Louisiana detention center for six weeks — all in retaliation for co-authoring an op-ed in her student newspaper. On March 25, while Ms. Öztürk was on the phone with her mom, plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents surrounded her in Somerville, Massachusetts and arrested her. For nearly 24 hours, Ms. Öztürk’s attorney was unable to locate her as ICE quickly and quietly moved her to three separate locations in three different states — including Vermont — before sending her to Louisiana.

“Every day Ms. Öztürk spends in confinement is an affront to the constitution. Her constitutional injury is only compounded by the deplorable conditions she must suffer through. Today, the court rightfully declined to play along with the government’s latest attempt to keep Ms. Öztürk separated from her community and legal counsel. We will continue to advocate for Ms. Öztürk until she is released,” said Mudassar Toppa, staff attorney at CLEAR, a legal non-profit and clinic at CUNY School of Law

Since she arrived in Louisiana, Ms. Öztürk has lived in a cramped room with poor ventilation and 23 other women for almost all hours of the day. In new filings in her federal court case in Vermont, she says she has suffered several asthma attacks that have “become progressively harder to recover from” while in detention. Whereas her attacks used to last between 5-15 minutes, they now can last up to 45 minutes. She is regularly exposed to asthma triggers including insect and rodent droppings, and is almost never exposed to fresh air. The court filings also describe difficulty receiving appropriate care in detention, including delays to receive medical care and dismissive comments from medical staff.

“Rümeysa has suffered six weeks in crowded confinement without adequate access to medical care and in conditions that doctors say risk exacerbating her asthma attacks. Her detention — over an op-ed she co-authored in her student newspaper — is as cruel as it is unconstitutional,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director, ACLU of Massachusetts. “Today, we moved one step closer to returning Rümeysa to her community and studies in Massachusetts.”

A federal judge in Vermont will hold hearings regarding Ms. Öztürk's motion to be released on bail on May 9 and the merits of the habeas petition on May 22.

“The government’s efforts to deny Rümeysa access to justice by deploying these gratuitous delay tactics have once again been rightfully blocked by the courts,” said Lia Ernst, legal director, ACLU of Vermont. “Today’s ruling affirms that her swift transfer to Vermont is essential, and we will continue fighting until she is free.”

Ms. Öztürk is represented in immigration court by Mahsa Khanbabai and Marty Rosenbluth, and in federal court by Mahsa Khanbabai, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Massachusetts, ACLU of Vermont, CLEAR, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP.

For documents and other case information, see here.