Protestors and folks who are generally interested in the State not ejecting people for Thoughtcrime have been following two protestors who were faced with deportation. The first is Mahmoud Khalil. He was detained related to protests he took part in on Columbia’s campus. Shortly after being taken into custody, he was transferred from New Jersey to Louisiana. Besides the general hardship of being abducted for having the gall to believe in the First Amendment, he suffered the injury of being denied the chance to see his son being born. His case is still live — a judge recently ordered the DOJ to offer a legal basis for Khalil’s detainment.
The second protestor is Rümeysa Öztürk. She is a Tufts University graduate student who was abducted by plain clothes ICE officers in broad daylight over a paper she wrote voicing her political opinions. You can see the arrest below:
The horrific moment that Tufts grad student and anti-war activist Rumeysa Ozturk was detained (kidnapped) by Trump’s ICE thugs.
Somerville, MA #FreePalestine #FreeRemeysa pic.twitter.com/eetyAN1LSF
— Working Mass (@DSAWorkingMass) March 26, 2025
ICE played a similar moving game with her, arresting her in Massachusetts and quickly shipping her to Vermont. Thankfully, the judiciary is acting as a check on executive excesses. NPR has coverage:
A federal appeals court in New York Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to transfer Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student, from Louisiana to Vermont to continue her immigration detention in that state while a judge there decides whether to release her on bail.
The Trump administration has one week to comply with the transfer, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.
Would you look at that! While a deadline of months ago would have been preferred, the week to comply at least acts as a concrete measuring stick to know if the administration is acting in contempt of court or not. The 2nd Circuit must have learned their lesson after seeing how the administration squabbled over definitions and may have AI hallucinated a justification for not actually facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return from an El Salvadorian slave camp. Things may have played out a little differently if the Supreme Court explicitly said “Bring Garcia’s ass back within 7 business days.” They would have also played out differently had the transfer not been granted — being in Louisiana would have put her squarely in the hands of the 5th Circuit and that wouldn’t have boded well. The fewer opportunities Judge Ho has to transform a routine ruling into some talent show where he hopes to grab Trump’s attention, the better.
A bail hearing is scheduled for Öztürk on Friday.
Federal Court Rules Rümeysa Öztürk Must Be Transferred To Detention In Vermont [NPR]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
The post 2nd Circuit Orders Return Of Vermont Grad Student Abducted By ICE Because She Wrote An Article They Didn’t Like appeared first on Above the Law.
Protestors and folks who are generally interested in the State not ejecting people for Thoughtcrime have been following two protestors who were faced with deportation. The first is Mahmoud Khalil. He was detained related to protests he took part in on Columbia’s campus. Shortly after being taken into custody, he was transferred from New Jersey to Louisiana. Besides the general hardship of being abducted for having the gall to believe in the First Amendment, he suffered the injury of being denied the chance to see his son being born. His case is still live — a judge recently ordered the DOJ to offer a legal basis for Khalil’s detainment.
The second protestor is Rümeysa Öztürk. She is a Tufts University graduate student who was abducted by plain clothes ICE officers in broad daylight over a paper she wrote voicing her political opinions. You can see the arrest below:
ICE played a similar moving game with her, arresting her in Massachusetts and quickly shipping her to Vermont. Thankfully, the judiciary is acting as a check on executive excesses. NPR has coverage:
A federal appeals court in New York Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to transfer Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student, from Louisiana to Vermont to continue her immigration detention in that state while a judge there decides whether to release her on bail.
The Trump administration has one week to comply with the transfer, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.
Would you look at that! While a deadline of months ago would have been preferred, the week to comply at least acts as a concrete measuring stick to know if the administration is acting in contempt of court or not. The 2nd Circuit must have learned their lesson after seeing how the administration squabbled over definitions and may have AI hallucinated a justification for not actually facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return from an El Salvadorian slave camp. Things may have played out a little differently if the Supreme Court explicitly said “Bring Garcia’s ass back within 7 business days.” They would have also played out differently had the transfer not been granted — being in Louisiana would have put her squarely in the hands of the 5th Circuit and that wouldn’t have boded well. The fewer opportunities Judge Ho has to transform a routine ruling into some talent show where he hopes to grab Trump’s attention, the better.
A bail hearing is scheduled for Öztürk on Friday.
Federal Court Rules Rümeysa Öztürk Must Be Transferred To Detention In Vermont [NPR]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
