Rümeysa Öztürk was soft-spoken, smiling, and quietly self-assured in her first major public remarks since her release from a Louisiana immigration detention facility on Friday.
The 30-year-old Tufts graduate student from Turkey took part in a news conference at Logan Airport Saturday night, soon after landing in Boston.
Öztürk’s demeanor at Logan was a stark contrast from the video that circulated soon after her March 26 detention in Somerville when she was seen screaming as a group of masked people – later identified as federal immigration agents – approached her, seized her phone, and put her into a black vehicle.
Her detention came soon after her student visa was revoked, without notification.
Despite the arrest and the weeks of detention that followed, Öztürk struck a hopeful chord in her remarks.
“America is the greatest democracy in the world, and I believe in those values that we share. I have faith in the American system of justice,” said Öztürk.
“This has been very difficult time for me, for my community, for my community at Tufts, [in] Turkey, but I’m so grateful for all the support, kindness, and care.”
Öztürk described how her advisor sent her dissertation proposal to the Louisiana facility so she’d have it while in custody, and how she received many letters of support. “So much love and comforting words,” she said.
She also urged the media to continue reporting on others being held in federal custody, urging the press to “not forget these wonderful women in the immigration detention system.”
Öztürk was flanked at the news conference by Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who both visited her at the Louisiana facility last month. She was also joined by her legal team, including immigration attorney Mahsa Khanbabai and Jessie Rossman, litigation director for the ACLU of Massachusetts. Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, also spoke.
“It’s a victory for Rümeysa. It’s a victory for justice. It’s a victory for our democracy,” Markey said. “Let us not be fooled into thinking that we are different from Rümeysa, that what she has had to endure could never happen to any of the rest of us. Her rights to due process and free speech are everyone’s rights.”
Pressley and Öztürk’s attorneys walked through the ongoing asthma attacks and allegedly poor medical care she received in detention, contributing factors in District of Vermont Judge William Sessions’ order for her release.
Sessions ordered Öztürk’s release at a bail hearing Friday, finding that she had “raised a substantial claim of constitutional violation” and saying that he does not see her as a danger or flight risk.
Even with her release, Öztürk’s immigration removal case will continue, as will the habeas case disputing her arrest.
“Rümeysa’s petition raised serious First Amendment concerns, serious due process concerns, and those are the concerns that we’re going to be litigating when we’re back before the court,” said Rossman of the ACLU of Massachusetts.
Khanbabai warned that Öztürk’s immigration case, which will determine whether her student visa is reinstated, represents the battle international students are facing in protecting their free speech rights.
In justifying her arrest and the revocation of her visa, federal officials pointed to a pro-Palestinian opinion piece Öztürk co-authored in the Tufts student newspaper and suggested that she had a connection to Hamas. In that op-ed, Öztürk and others urged the university’s leadership to divest from companies with ties to Israel. An internal investigation at the Department of State leaked to The Washington Post has since shown that the agency found no connections to Hamas or terrorism.
In her own remarks at Logan, Rep. Pressley described visiting Öztürk at the Louisiana detention center last month. Pressley had been planning to give her a stone engraved with the word “Hope,” but realized it would likely be confiscated.
She said she placed it in Öztürk’s hand upon her return to Massachusetts on Saturday. “I just wanted her to not lose hope and to know that we had come to see about her, and we were going to continue to do that until she was set free.”
