Detained Turkish Tufts student's lawyers demand her case remain in Mass.

Lawyers for a Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey who was detained by immigration authorities argued Thursday that her case should be handled by the federal court in Massachusetts, while U.S. government attorneys said it should be dismissed and go before an immigration judge.

Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was taken into custody as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on March 25. After being transported to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana.

Justice Department lawyers said Ozturk had been moved to Vermont by the time U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston ordered authorities to keep her in Massachusetts, and that there was no available "bedspace" for her to stay in New England. They said Ozturk's lawyers had to file her original petition in Vermont, the jurisdiction where she was confined at the time of the filing, or in Louisiana, where she was being held when they amended their petition.

"Place of confinement cannot be swept away as a long-standing rule," Assistant U.S. Attorney told Judge Denise Casper.

But Ozturk's lawyers said at the time they filed the petition, they had no way of knowing where she was. They also noted the petition was filed while Ozturk was in a vehicle within the control of Massachusetts-based ICE officials, making the Boston court the appropriate venue.

"That person in control did not change when the vehicle that Ms. Ozturk crossed state lines," attorney Adriana Lafaille argued.

Ozturk's lawyers said that if the judge disagrees, the case should be moved to Vermont. They have said her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. They've asked the judge to order that she be immediately returned to Massachusetts and released from custody. Casper took the issue under advisement.

Outside the court building Thursday, protesters marched and held up signs on her behalf. Earlier, nearly two dozen of Ozturk's colleagues and Tufts University submitted letters to the court backing that request, describing her as a gentle, compassionate and cherished member of the Tufts community.

Ozturk is among several people with ties to American universities who attended demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians during the war in Gaza and who recently had visas revoked or been stopped from entering the U.S. She was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily last year criticizing the university's response to student activists' demands. The student activists were demanding that Tufts "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide," disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

Ozturk defended writing as a peaceful way of addressing inequality in a statement dictated to an attorney and shared by the ACLU.

"Efforts to target me because of my op-ed in the Tufts Daily calling for the equal dignity and humanity of all people will not deter me from my commitment to advocate for the rights of youth and children," she said.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed the termination of Ozturk's visa last week. The official said investigations found she had engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, but did not provide any evidence of that.

Hamas militants invaded Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing about 250 hostages. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and destroyed much of the enclave.

Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack and Holly Ramer and NBC10 Boston staff contributed.