Turkish student abducted by ICE says hijab forcibly removed, asthma not treated in US detention

A Turkish doctoral student who was abducted by ICE agents in Massachusetts last month in a video that has since gone viral stated in a declaration this week that her hijab was removed, she has limited access to food, and she was forced to wait hours for toilet paper while also not getting proper treatment for her asthma.

Rumeysa Ozturk, currently held in a Louisiana ICE facility, described "inhumane" and "unsafe" conditions, adding that the place she is being held is very unsanitary.

"There is a mouse in our cell. The boxes they provide for our clothing are very dirty and they don’t give us adequate hygiene supplies," the declaration from her filed in the US District Court for Vermont reads.

"I asked for the medication I am prescribed to treat asthma but I was told that there was no place to buy it and that I would get it at my final destination. My asthma finally passed after I used my emergency inhaler twice but it took some time and I was in pain," she continues in her declaration. 

She said she suffered from several asthma attacks in the Louisiana facility, was not allowed outside, and when she was taken for treatment, a nurse took off her hijab without her permission.

"I told her you can’t take off my hijab and she said this is for your health," the declaration states. Ozturk then says she put her hijab back on and alleged that the nurse only gave her Ibuprofen.

The declaration raises concerns that her health will worsen while in the facility due to "fumes" and "damp" which she says is triggering her asthma, coupled with over 20 people being crammed into a cell with her.

If anyone in the cell requests toilet paper, they "may not get it until 18 hours later, depending on the officer", she says. 

Arrested despite no evidence 

Ozturk was arrested on 25 March, after she co-authored an opinion article last year in a student newspaper which was critical of Tufts University’s response to calls that the institution should "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide" and "divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel".

Video footage of her arrest shows her walking on the pavement while on the phone before two men in plain clothes approach her, grab her hands to stop her from moving and take her phone. She screamed, alleging the agents later shackled her feet.

In the declaration, she describes not knowing anything about the arrest, and felt at many points as if she was going to be killed. 

She said she was held overnight in Vermont before being moved to an ICE centre in Louisiana, where she was asked if she was a member of a terrorist organisation and if she wanted to apply for asylum.

Recent reports however, found that days before the ICE agents abducted Ozturk, the State Department had already determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in anti-Semitic activities or made public statements supporting a terror group, as the government alleged.

According to a report from the Washington Post on Monday, citing a memo from last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have sufficient grounds for revoking her visa under an authority empowering the top US diplomat to safeguard the foreign policy interests of the US.

The Department of Homeland Security had stated that Ozturk engaged in activities "in support of Hamas," however, no US prosecutors or agencies provided evidence for the claim, despite the allegations being used to justify her being deported.

Once no evidence was found, the department then said she could be deported using a different authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows for visas to be revoked under the Secretary of State’s discretion.

Ozturk is just one of many who have been targeted by a large-scale crackdown on international students, immigrants and scholars by the Trump administration in recent weeks.

Ozturk is currently awaiting a hearing scheduled in Vermont in the federal court, with her lawyers saying her possible deportation would violate US founding principles of freedom of speech.