On Tuesday, a discord erupted between a Justice Department lawyer and an appeals judge during a hearing concerning detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk. Öztürk, a Turkish national, was arrested by immigration authorities on March 25 after her student visa was revoked by the Trump administration, citing claims that she had engaged in activities potentially undermining U.S. foreign policy. This included co-authoring a critical op-ed about Tufts’ response to the Gaza conflict. At the Second Circuit of Appeals in New York City, Judge Barrington Parker pressed the government attorney, Drew Ensign, on whether Öztürk’s and her co-author’s speech was protected. Ensign deferred, stating he lacked the authority to address the issue.
Footage of Öztürk’s arrest shows her being forcibly taken by officers, and since then, she has been held in a Louisiana detention center, far from the Boston area, where she has suffered asthma attacks due to poor living conditions. Her legal team has sought to transfer her case back to Vermont, where she was last located.
Simultaneously, the court also reviewed the case of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student detained in April after being interviewed for naturalization. His attorney argued that detaining Mahdawi again would infringe on his free speech rights, especially given his involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. Mahdawi was recently released on bail by a federal judge who likened the current political climate to the repressive atmosphere of the Red Scare. He expressed a defiant stance against the government, signaling resistance against perceived overreach. Both cases highlight tensions around free speech and governmental authority amid escalating political scrutiny of student activists.
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