NewsFlash

photo by AP

A Tufts University PhD student on a visa was arrested by immigration authorities outside of Boston on Tuesday night, according to the school and the student's lawyer. The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, is a Turkish national, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai. "Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national who was maintaining valid F-1 status as a PhD student at Tufts University," Khanbabai said in a statement. "Rumeysa was heading to meet with friends to break her Ramadan fast on the evening of March 25th when she was detained near her home in Somerville, MA by DHS agents. We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her."  "No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of. I filed a habeas petition requesting that she not be moved out of the District of MA which was granted by Judge [Indira] Talwani last night," according to her lawyer. ABC News has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ozturk is listed in the ICE database as "in custody."
 
FROM  https://abcnews.go.com/US/tufts-phd-student-visa-arrested-immigration-authorities/story?id=120176245

FROM https://www.salon.com/2025/03/26/dhs-detains-grad-student-advocated-for-palestine-and-the-humanity-of-all-people/

SEE ALSO - https://whdh.com/news/video-released-of-tufts-university-student-detained-by-ice-agents/


ADDENDUM:     Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said Wednesday that her office is “closely monitoring” the situation around the arrest of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk.  Ozturk, a Turkish national and Fulbright Scholar who is pursuing her PhD in the university’s Child Study and Human Development department, was detained by federal authorities near her home in Somerville on Tuesday evening, a moment that was captured on video.  “The footage of Rumeysa Ozturk’s arrest — a student here legally — is disturbing,” Campbell said in her statement. “Based on what we know, it is alarming that the federal administration chose to ambush and detain her, apparently targeting a law-abiding individual because of her political views. This isn’t public safety, it’s intimidation that will, and should, be closely scrutinized in court. My office is closely monitoring this matter as it develops.”

As of Wednesday evening, ICE records listed Ozturk as being held in the South Louisiana Correctional Center in Basile, Louisiana.

MORE HERE https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2025/03/26/ag-campbell-says-shes-monitoring-situation-after-tufts-grad-student-arrested-by-ice/   

SEE ALSO - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/us/ice-tufts-student-detained-rumeysa-ozturk.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-immigration-authorities-detain-international-tufts-graduate-st-rcna198158

The following is from a declaration by Tufts University in support of a motion filed April 2nd by Rümeysa Öztürk’s legal team in Öztürk v. Hyde in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.


1. On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the University learned that Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts doctoral student from Turkey, was taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security as she was leaving her off-campus apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts. The University understands that she was leaving her home that evening for an Iftar dinner hosted at the Tufts Interfaith Center where she would break her Ramadan fast for the day.

2. At around 6:30 p.m. that evening, the Tufts University Police Department received courtesy notification from the Somerville Police Department that an individual had been detained by federal authorities and that the person in custody might be a Tufts student. We confirmed through our records that the person in question was Rümeysa Öztürk.

3. At 7:32 p.m., Ms. Öztürk’s record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) was updated to note that her visa was terminated. Prior to that, and at the time of her detention, Ms. Öztürk was in “good immigration standing” according to her record in SEVIS, and both Ms. Öztürk and Tufts had followed the governing regulations for students on visas. The University then received a notice, dated March 25, 2025 and received via email on March 26, 2025 at 10:31 a.m., stating that Rümeysa’s visa was cancelled because she was a “non-immigrant status violator” (citing 237 (a)(1)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act) and/or that the United States believed that her presence in the country would result in “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States” (citing 237 (a)(4)(C)(i)).

4. With her consent, the University can confirm that Ms. Öztürk is a third-year doctoral student in good academic and administrative standing. Her research focuses on how young adults can use social media in positive, prosocial ways and she is described by her faculty as a hard-working student dedicated to her studies and the Tufts community. The University has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention. The University has seen an outpouring of support for Ms. Öztürk over the last week from Tufts students, faculty and staff. These individuals have described Ms. Öztürk as a valued member of the community, dedicated to her academic pursuits and committed to her colleagues.



More at:  https://www.tufts.edu/president/speeches-and-messages/04022025-university-declaration-for-rumeysa-ozturk


[Again, snatching people off the street like the Gestapo, and changing the records later. This is intolerable.     ]

It’s all so sad.

Lutnick: "European Union won't take chicken from America ... they hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak."

US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has labeled European beef ‘weak’, claiming the EU ban imports on American meat ‘because it’s beautiful’. Speaking on Fox News’ Hannity show in the aftermath of president Donald Trump’s blockbuster ‘Liberation Day’ raft of global reciprocal tariffs, Lutnick chastised the EU, which was hit with a 20% tax on all imports into the US, for not importing more from America.  European Union won’t take chicken from America. They won’t take lobsters from America. They hate our beef, because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak,” said Lutnick. The EU has banned American beef produced using growth hormones, which are forbidden under European health regulations, since 1989.

FROM -  https://www.msn.com/en-gb/politics/international-relations/us-commerce-secretary-slams-eu-beef-ban-their-beef-is-weak-ours-is-beautiful/ar-AA1Ce5gz


[Seriously???  And he thinks people in the EU are going to want to do MORE business with the USA now? Holy Frijoles what an idiot with what an ego! I only wish WE could get EU beef!]

It’s all so sad.

Ya know, I want to know precisely who it is who is making up the list of people to be "disappeared".  ICE have pretty much been renegades since their inception in 2003 after 9/11, but someone is telling them specifically who to grab. Those kids have been targeted.  As they are guests in this country,  it's sickening to me how they have been/are being treated.

REF:  https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5228997-ice-has-long-acted-with-impunity-americans-are-only-noticing-now/  I have to admit that I thought ICE was primarily going after drug dealers and that sort of thing, not decent hard-working people just trying to make better lives for themselves. And students. Seriously, these Gestapo tactics are intolerable.     


I was heartened to see this today, though. There is still hope:

Jewish students at Columbia University chained themselves to a campus gate across from the graduate School of International and Public Affairs Wednesday, braving rain and cold to demand the school release information related to the targeting and ICE arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a former SIPA student. Democracy Now! was at the protest and spoke to Jewish and Palestinian students calling on the school to reveal the extent of its involvement in Khalil’s arrest. 

FROM - https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/3/ice_students_immigrants_mahmoud_khalil

God Bless those kids.

Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold Funds From Public Schools

State education officials will be required to verify that they have eliminated all programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion that the administration deems unlawful, according to a new memo.  The Trump administration threatened on Thursday to withhold federal funding from public schools unless state education officials verified the elimination of all programs that it said unfairly promoted diversity, equity and inclusion. In a memo sent to top public education officials across the country, the Education Department said that funding for schools with high percentages of low-income students, known as Title I funding, was at risk pending compliance with the administration’s directive.


MORE - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/us/politics/public-school-funding-trump-dei.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2025/04/03/trump-dei-school-funding-10-days-memo/82792285007/

AND

For years, White House press conferences included sign language interpreters for the deaf. No longer. Interpreters have been noticeably absent from Trump administration press briefings, advocacy groups say. Gone, too, are the American Sign Language interpretations that used to appear on the White House's YouTube channel. A White House webpage on accessibility, whitehouse.gov/accessibility, has also ceased working.

From halting diversity programs that benefit people with disabilities to staffing cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Trump administration has taken a slew of actions that harm those with impairments or chronic health conditions. Decades of hard-fought gains risk being undone by cuts to federal programs, freezes on research funding, and a White House ban on practices that support diversity. Advocacy groups are pushing back, setting the stage for years of lawsuits and pitched health policy battles.

Some leaders at organizations that serve disabled people are loath to publicly criticize the White House actions because of concerns their groups could become targeted by the administration, especially if they rely on federal funding or grants.  "The silencing of opposition is quite chilling," said Michael Rembis, director of the Center for Disability Studies at State University of New York-Buffalo. "The denial of disabled people's humanity and their voice, as well as the actions against disabled people in terms of the removal or evisceration of core infrastructure, are directly related to the ableist language being used by the administration. It is all part of a larger fear and loathing of people who are unlike themselves."

FROM - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-dei-disabled-people-disability-accommodations/



[OK, this one's personal. I will be donating funds to support challenges to this by the advocacy groups.     ]

Trump Administration Mistakenly Sent Maryland Man to El Salvador Prison, Says it Can't Get Him Back - The Trump administration conceded in a court filing Monday that it mistakenly deported a Maryland father to El Salvador “because of an administrative error” and argued it could not return him because he’s now in Salvadoran custody.

FROM -  https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-administration-concedes-maryland-father-044632677.html

[snip]

The United States government accidentally deported a man to El Salvador due to an "administrative error," landing him in a notorious mega-jail and leaving him stuck there in legal limbo, according to legal papers filed on Monday. Kilmar Arbrego Garcia came to the U.S. in 2011 from El Salvador and is a legal resident protected by a 2019 court order that prevented him from being sent back to his home country. But, in court papers filed Monday, the government admitted that "on March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error." Garcia lives in Maryland with his wife and 5-year-old child, who is autistic and intellectually disabled. The couple both work full-time, the filing says. This incident was first reported by The Atlantic. ...


[SNIP]

[WELL THEY HAD DAMNED WELL BETTER GET HIM BACK!         ]


[ Leviticus 19:33-34 ]

Despite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official acknowledging there was an "administrative error" in sending a Maryland man to El Salvador -- the Trump administration is "shockingly" not seeking his return to the U.S., according to a new filing by the man's lawyer. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who has a U.S. citizen wife and 5-year-old child, is currently at CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador despite a judge issuing an order in 2019 that barred authorities from deporting him to his home country. Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the attorney representing Abrego Garcia said in a filing on Wednesday that if the Trump administration's actions are allowed to remain without "redress," then "the orders of immigration courts are meaningless."....

...Sandoval-Moshenberg has said that his client "is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang" and said that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation." In response, the government acknowledged the error but said in a filing that because Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the court cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor can the court order El Salvador to return him. The new filing by Sandoval-Moshenberg in support of his motion for a preliminary injunction comes days before a judge is scheduled to hear arguments on the case in Maryland. [NOTE:  That hearing is today, April 3.]

"Noncitizens -- and their U.S.-citizen spouses and children -- must know that if this nation awards them protection from persecution, it will honor that commitment even when the political winds shift," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. The attorney said that the deportation of Abrego Garcia was carried out "by force" and not the law....

FROM - https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-admin-working-return-maryland-man-el-salvador/story?id=120422543

ADDENDUM:

https://www.newsweek.com/kilmar-armando-abrego-garcia-deported-el-salvador-maryland-father-ms13-2054507

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/outrage-grows-maryland-mans-mistaken-deportation-el-salvador-prison-rcna199452

https://jayapal.house.gov/2025/04/01/jayapal-statement-on-the-unlawful-abduction-and-deportation-of-kilmar-armando-abrego-garcia/

https://reason.com/2025/04/02/innocent-father-or-ms-13-gang-member/

RELATED TO PREVIOUS POST

Washington CNN  —  Justice Department attorneys will appear before Judge James Boasberg on Thursday to make its case for why the Trump administration did not violate his orders halting the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans the government has accused of being part of a gang. The so-called show cause hearing represents the closest a federal judge has come to deciding whether the administration has defied a judicial command.

While other judges around the US have considered in recent months whether the government violated their orders in disputes over federal funding and transgender rights, Thursday’s hearing goes much further as it’s the first step in Boasberg potentially holding officials in contempt and possibly ordering sanctions.

MORE at - https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/03/politics/boasberg-alien-enemies-act-deportation-flights-hearing/index.html

Link to petition before the court - https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.15.0.pdf


[ADDENDUM - The judge appears to be leaning towards finding the government in Contempt of Court, from what I read the pundits saying.  Next hearing is on the 8th. Perhaps we'll hear something final there. https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-weigh-if-trump-administration-violated-order-not-deport-venezuelans-2025-04-03/]

This post by the Vice President is beyond disturbing.