The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed an order by a federal judge demanding the immediate release of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk who was snatched from the street by masked ICE agents apparently because she co-wrote an editorial calling for her school to divest from the Israeli government over its genocide in Gaza.
SEE: Federal judge orders ICE to release Rumeysa Ozturk, detained Tufts international student
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“We welcome the court’s decision to order the immediate release of political prisoner Rumeysa Ozturk, and we applaud the court for calling out the government’s baseless and dangerously unconstitutional rationale for abducting her in the first place.
“If ICE could get away with abducting and deporting a lawful permanent resident of the United States for the crime of writing an editorial in her school newspaper critical of a foreign government’s genocide, then free speech in America would be dead.
“The administration must end its war on free speech in America for the benefit of the Israeli government and drop its efforts to deport Rumeysa and all other wrongfully-detained immigrants, including Mahmoud Khalil.”
CAIR previously demanded Ozturk’s release.
SEE: CAIR-MA Condemns ICE Abduction of Tufts Student Rumeysa Ozturk
CAIR Commends Tufts President for Supporting Rumeysa Ozturk, Urges Others to Speak Out
Last month, CAIR demanded that the Trump administration provide proper medical care for Ozturk. Ozturk has reportedly suffered several asthma attacks while in custody in conditions she describes as “unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane.”
CAIR also demanded that Ozturk be granted her constitutionally-protected religious rights in detention after she reported that her Islamic headscarf, or hijab, was forcibly removed in detention.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com