Öztürk is a PhD student at Tufts University who has lived and studied in the United States on a valid student visa since 2018. One year ago, she co-wrote an op-ed in the Tufts school newspaper that called upon the university to abide by undergraduate student Senate resolutions that sought to hold Israel accountable for international law violations against the Palestinian people by divesting from Israeli companies. This exercise of her First Amendment rights to speak out on Palestine appears to be the sole reason plainclothes ICE officers kidnapped her, after the DHS unlawfully stripped her of her visa that same day without notice.
She was snatched off the street in broad daylight, secretly smuggled out of Massachusetts, and sent to a detention facility in Louisiana, where initially she was denied access to her attorneys and where her attorneys could not verify the conditions of her confinement or whether she was receiving adequate medical care. She suffered numerous asthma attacks while she was detained and was denied medication.
Free Speech For People sent a formal request to review the case, issued via a detailed letter to Attorney General Campbell and District Attorney Ryan in April. The undisputed facts provide a basis for undertaking an inquiry into whether President Donald Trump, senior Trump officials–including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem–and ICE agents conspired to kidnap Rümeysa Öztürk.
But we need your help.
We need to make it clear that the public will not stand for the egregious and illegal abduction of Öztürk for exercising her right to free speech in support of Palestine.
Sign and share our petition for a criminal investigation of those responsible for Öztürk’s kidnapping.
