Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), alongside Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), welcomed Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk back to Boston after she was detained for nearly two months over a campus op-ed that condemned the war in Gaza.
The lawmakers spoke about Öztürk’s return at the city’s Logan Airport on Saturday, after a federal judge ordered she be released from a Louisiana facility where she was held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It has nothing to do with foreign policy. It has everything to do with power,” Pressley told the crowd during a Saturday presser about Öztürk’s detention.
“This is simply about silencing dissenting voices. And so, this could be anyone…,” she continued.
The Trump administration has targeted students, including Mahmoud Khalil, who’ve openly supported Palestine’s quest to be recognized as a state. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been treating reports of similar statements as “antisemitic” remarks that must be cracked down upon by school administrators or warrant federal backlash.
However, Pressly says, the efforts to quell voices of opposition aren’t limited to conflicts overseas.
“It could be you for suffering a miscarriage. It could be you for reading a banned book. It could be you for practicing diversity, equity and inclusion- all things that they seek to re-criminalize,” Pressley said at the press conference, noting other Republican targets.
Markey doubled down on her statements, saying, “It’s a victory for Rümeysa. It’s a victory for justice. It’s a victory for our democracy.”
“Let us not be fooled into thinking that we are different from Rümeysa. That what she has had to endure could never happen to any of the rest of us. Her rights to due process and free speech are everyone’s rights,” he added.
Öztürk, a Turkish national, is now out on bail and must return for a court date in Vermont on May 22 to discuss her detainment.
“I have faith in the American system of justice,” she said during Saturday’s presser.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended Öztürk’s detention in March.
“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campus. We’ve given you a visa and you decide to do that we’re going to take it away,” he previously told reporters.
“We don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country,” he added.
