Vermont federal judge hears arguments in detained Tufts student’s case, makes no ruling

Updated at 6:54 p.m.

BURLINGTON — A federal judge in Burlington heard arguments Monday in the case of a Tufts University student who was arrested by federal agents in Massachusetts last month and later briefly detained at an immigration enforcement facility in St. Albans.

Judge William Sessions didn’t immediately rule during the hearing, which centered on whether the student, Rümeysa Öztürk, should remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention or not. Öztürk has been detained for weeks at an ICE facility in Basile, Louisiana, where she was taken after being lodged overnight in Vermont.

But the judge did appear open to ordering her brought back to Vermont while the case continues, a move Öztürk’s attorneys proposed, among others, in court filings. Sessions grilled the lawyers and the prosecutor representing the feds for more than two hours, before concluding by saying he’d take both sides’ arguments “under advisement.” 

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse on Elmwood Avenue after the hearing, Jessie Rossman, from Öztürk’s legal team, said she wasn’t sure when the judge would decide on the case’s next steps, but added, “we know that the court has been moving expeditiously on this case, and we anticipate that he will continue to do so.” 

The graduate student’s attorneys have asked Sessions to order her released on bail as her case proceeds, or if not that, to have her held in custody in Vermont instead. 

The federal government has contested both of those requests, arguing that Öztürk’s case should instead be delegated entirely to the federal immigration court system. Öztürk has additional proceedings in that system already, stemming from the feds’ decision to revoke her student visa and order her to be deported from the U.S. 

A federal judge in Massachusetts, where Öztürk’s case was first filed before being moved, at least for the time being, to Vermont, ruled late last month that the student cannot be deported without a court order authorizing the government to do so.

Sessions said he is first weighing whether he agrees that the case should continue to be heard in Vermont. If he’s satisfied that his court has jurisdiction over the case, he said, he may then solicit more arguments from both sides at a later date — which he did not set — on whether it’s appropriate for Öztürk to be released from detention.

Öztürk, who is Turkish, was arrested by masked and plainclothes officers on a street near her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, on the evening of March 25. She was whisked north to Vermont via New Hampshire that night, before being flown out of Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport early the following morning. 

“When the men approached me, my first thought was that they were not government officials but private individuals who wanted to harm me,” Öztürk wrote in an affidavit filed with the court last week, before going on to write, “I thought this was a strange situation and was sure they were going to kill me.”

Öztürk’s attorneys have argued that ICE wrongly targeted her for exercising her rights to free speech. The government appears to have targeted Öztürk for co-writing an op-ed in Tufts’ student newspaper that criticized university leaders for their response to demands that the school divest from companies with ties to Israel, her attorneys have said.

At Monday’s hearing, her lawyers also contended the feds have not charged her with a crime and that, by keeping her detained, the government is creating “a chilling effect” that will discourage other people from writing or speaking about similar issues. 

They pointed to Öztürk’s affidavit, too, which states that the 30-year-old has been “in pain and very scared” while in ICE custody. She has suffered four asthma attacks while detained but hasn’t received adequate care for her condition, the court filing states.

Acting U.S. Attorney for Vermont Michael Drescher, who is defending ICE and other federal agencies against Öztürk’s challenge, said the government did not dispute that the student could bring a case against it. But he argued that the challenge had to be confined to the federal immigration system, with its own distinct courts and judges.

If Sessions found that Vermont’s U.S. District Court has jurisdiction over even some of the proceedings, Drescher argued, the judge would be infringing on the executive branch of the federal government’s discretion to enforce U.S. immigration law.

Monday’s hearing was “neither the time, nor the forum” for the case to be litigated, Drescher told the judge.

Öztürk’s attorneys contended they were challenging the constitutionality of Öztürk’s arrest — an issue over which Sessions should have a say, they maintained. 

“There’s no discretion to violate the Constitution,” Noor Zafar, another of Öztürk’s lawyers, said during Monday’s arguments in the courtroom.

Sessions appeared to have some concern with the government’s argument that there was an insurmountable conflict between his court and the immigration system. If Öztürk “is right” that her constitutional rights were violated when she was arrested, but the government thinks Öztürk should be detained, regardless, “then we’re in a constitutional crisis,” the judge said.

Drescher responded that the government would comply with Sessions’ decision, even if they disagreed with it.

Öztürk’s case has drawn national attention as President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly taken aim at students and professors across the country in recent weeks, including revoking some academics’ permission to study and work in the U.S. 

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, hundreds of people lined the sidewalks outside the downtown Burlington courthouse, many of them waving Palestinian flags or holding handmade signs professing support for Öztürk and other students who have been detained.

The rally was organized by the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation and featured speakers from that organization, Vermonters for Justice in Palestine and University of Vermont Students for Justice in Palestine, among others. Crowds formed before the hearing started at 9:30 a.m., and many stayed for hours until the proceedings concluded around midday. 

“It’s incredibly important to show up in force and be loud and proud about what we believe, which is that the detention of Rümeysa is wrong. It is unjust, and she must be released immediately,” said James O’Malley, an organizer with UVM Students for Justice in Palestine, in an interview.

Others said they thought Öztürk’s detention represented an erosion of First Amendment protections in the country.  

“The most important thing that will come out of that room upstairs is the question, do we have the First Amendment right or not?” said Wafic Faour, a member of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine and of the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation who spoke at the rally.

“A lot of the people here came here because they are against Trump. We understand that. They are pro the First Amendment. We do understand that. But if they don’t understand that Palestine is the litmus test of the First Amendment, they are missing the point,” Faour said in an interview.  

Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver, a Winooski High School teacher, felt it was essential to show up and give voice to the concerns of her students, many of whom, she said, don’t share the same freedoms to speak up. 

“Many of my students are immigrants, with and without legal status,” she said in an interview. “I’m here because they want me to be here, (and) because I stand with my students, always.” 

“I think I see Rümeysa as a student first,” MacLeod-Bluver said, adding, “I think immigrants with or without legal status need our support now more than ever.”

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