Boston (April 22, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Representative Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote today to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons demanding answers about the Trump administration’s concerning pattern of ripping individuals from their communities and shipping them to jurisdictions more favorable to the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.
Last month, six plainclothes ICE agents apprehended Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national and fifth-year doctoral student at Tufts University, in broad daylight in Somerville, Massachusetts. ICE then moved Öztürk in a circuitous route through various states before placing her on a flight to Louisiana, miles away from her friends, lawyers, and community. The available evidence suggests that ICE did not transfer Öztürk to a Louisiana detention facility due to a lack of bed space in New England—as the government has claimed—but instead in an attempt to hand-pick the courts that will decide her case. These actions raise serious questions about the fairness and integrity of our immigration enforcement system.
In the letter, the lawmakers write, “In court filings, immigration lawyers described ICE’s treatment of Öztürk as irregular, declaring they had never seen or heard of an ICE detainee arrested in Massachusetts be so quickly shuttled out of Massachusetts and to multiple separate locations. This quick movement—coupled with the government’s delayed notice regarding a detainee’s whereabouts—risks frustrating the filing of habeas petitions.”
The lawmakers continue, “The government has since argued that Öztürk’s legal challenge must be heard in Louisiana, within the Fifth Circuit, where she is currently detained—a jurisdiction known for its strict immigration rulings. According to Mary Yanik, a clinical associate professor of law at Tulane University, in Louisiana the majority of ICE detention centers are within the jurisdiction of Louisiana’s Western District, which is the ‘slowest moving’ of the district courts in the state, very conservative, and whose release of detainees by formal order is ‘exceedingly rare.’ Decisions from federal district courts and immigration courts in Louisiana can eventually be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which the Center for American Progress has described as ‘arguably the most right-wing federal appellate court in the country.’ Legal experts and immigrant rights advocates have noted a troubling pattern in which ICE transfers detainees to jurisdictions with stricter immigration enforcement—such as Louisiana—thereby increasing the likelihood of deportation and limiting detainees’ access to legal representation and family support.”
The lawmakers request answers to the following questions by May 6, 2025:
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