Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts student detained for pro-Palestinian activity, asked a federal judge in Boston on Thursday to have her case moved to Massachusetts, where she lives and was picked up by federal agents, from Louisiana, where she is being held in an immigration detention facility.
Her lawyer, Adriana Lafaille, argued that after detaining Ms. Ozturk, the government deliberately moved her to a location where it could expect a more sympathetic hearing for its case against her. The transfer was so furtive that not even the government’s own lawyers knew where she was, Ms. Lafaille, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the court.
Ms. Ozturk, a doctoral candidate, was detained on March 25 near her apartment in Somerville, Mass., by federal agents in plain clothes who surrounded her, cuffed her and drove her away in an unmarked S.U.V. Footage of the encounter, captured by a surveillance camera, was viewed by millions of people, and generated outrage that Ms. Ozturk, a Turkish citizen on a student visa, had been picked up off the street even though there were no charges against her.
The government was “secretly whisking her away and making sure that no one would know where she was until she was in Louisiana,” Ms. Lafaille said, adding that she believed the government was “forum shopping” a location for the trial. (Louisiana is home to one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country.)
She added that it was “quite unusual that even the government’s own lawyers” were not told where Ms. Ozturk was.
A lawyer for the government said that Ms. Ozturk was moved out of state because there was no “bed space” at a detention center in Massachusetts to accommodate a female detainee.
Mark Sauter, an assistant U.S. attorney, said she was first driven to Vermont, and then put on a 5 a.m. flight to Louisiana, an arrangement that was decided before she was picked up.
“There was no attempt to manipulate jurisdiction,” Mr. Sauter said, adding that Ms. Ozturk’s lawyer learned where she was within 24 hours.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who detained her, were not trying to be deceptive, Mr. Sauter said. Her lawyer not knowing where she was, he said, was “not the same thing as ICE not being forthcoming about her location.”
Ms. Ozturk’s lawyer told the judge, Denise Casper, that a case might also be made for moving the jurisdiction to Vermont, since she had first been transferred there.
Ms. Ozturk is one of many international students whom the Trump administration has threatened to deport, as part of a crackdown on antisemitism at campuses across the country. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, confirmed that her visa was revoked, saying, “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.”
The government has not made clear what evidence it has against her. She is included on a website, Canary Mission, run by an anonymous group that says it is dedicated to fighting antisemitism on campus. Pro-Palestinian activists say the group is harassing them. The website links to an opinion essay written by Ms. Ozturk and others and published in the student newspaper, urging Tufts to divest from Israel and citing “plausible” evidence that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
The president of Tufts, Sunil Kumar, supported Ms. Ozturk in a statement on Wednesday. He said she was a student in good standing whose research focused on how young adults could use social media in a positive way.
“The university has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention,” the statement said, adding that she was a “valued member of the community.”
Mr. Kumar went on to say that Ms. Ozturk’s opinion piece did not violate any university policies and was consistent with its rules governing freedom of speech. As far as school officials knew, no complaints about it had been lodged inside or outside the university.
In other high-profile cases, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and permanent resident, was picked up by federal agents in his apartment building near the campus and likewise detained in Louisiana.
On Tuesday, a New Jersey federal judge ruled that Mr. Khalil’s case would remain in New Jersey, where he was being held when his lawyers filed their habeas corpus petition demanding his release.
The government is also seeking to deport Yunseo Chung, a Columbia undergraduate and permanent resident who immigrated from South Korea when she was a child.
Human Rights Watch denounced the campaign to deport students on Thursday, saying it was “creating a climate of fear on campuses across the country.”
Maya Shwayder contributed reporting from Boston. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Anemona Hartocollis is a national reporter for The Times, covering higher education. More about Anemona Hartocollis
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