The Tufts University student detained by federal immigration agents in March detailed the “inhumane” and “unsafe” conditions at the Louisiana ICE facility she is being held in, writing in a declaration that she had limited access to food, had to wait hours for toilet paper, and is not receiving proper treatment for her asthma.
Rumeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student from Turkey, also accused a nurse in the facility’s medical center of removing her hijab without asking permission.
“The conditions in the facility are very unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane,” Öztürk said in the declaration obtained by NBC News on Sunday night.
“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, filed in the U.S. District Court of Vermont, states.
Öztürk was arrested by immigration authorities on March 25 in Somerville, Massachusetts. She co-authored an opinion essay in March 2024 in the student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to demands that “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and “divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.”
According to her LinkedIn, she is in Tuft’s doctoral program for child study and human development.
She said in the declaration that she was on the phone with her mother when the agents approached her on the sidewalk.
Video of her arrest showed a plainclothes male agent wave at the doctoral student from Turkey and say, “Hey, ma’am.”
Öztürk, appearing confused, tried to walk around the agent, but he stepped in front of her. There appeared to be a brief conversation between the pair before the agent grabbed her hands so he could handcuff her, the video showed.
According to the declaration, Öztürk said her first thought was that the agents were “private individuals who wanted to harm me.”
“I felt very scared and concerned as the men surrounded me and grabbed my phone from me,” she said in the declaration.
The video showed her scream out in confusion as additional agents surrounded her and took her into custody. Mahsa Khanbabai, an attorney for Öztürk, said the video of the arrest “should shake everyone to their core.”
Öztürk alleged that the agents shackled her feet and stomach.
At one point, she said she feared she would be killed after the agents changed cars, according to the declaration.
Öztürk alleged that one of the agents said “we are not monsters” and that they “do what the government tells us.” The agent also told her that whatever she said could be used against her.
Öztürk said she was held overnight in Vermont before being transported to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. She alleged that while being held in Vermont, the officers asked her “about wanting to apply for asylum and if I was a member of a terrorist organization.”
The ordeal caused Öztürk to have an asthma attack during her transport to Louisiana, the declaration says. “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,” it says. “My asthma finally passed after I used my emergency inhaler twice but it took some time and I was in pain.”
She said during the first week in the Louisiana detention center she was not allowed to go outside, and that during the first two weeks “access to food and supplies was very limited because of their systems to request these items,” the declaration says.
She said she has had multiple asthma attacks at the Louisiana facility. During one attack, Öztürk said she was taken to the medical center for treatment and the nurse allegedly took her temperature, told her “you need to take that thing off your head” and then took off Öztürk’s hijab without asking her permission.
“I told her you can’t take off my hijab and she said this is for your health,” the declaration states. Öztürk said she put her hijab back on and alleged that the nurse only treated her with ibuprofen.
Öztürk said in the declaration that she fears her asthma is not being properly treated “and it will not be adequately treated while I remain in ICE custody.”
“The air is full of fumes from cleaning supplies and is damp which triggers my asthma,” the declaration says.
The declaration also alleges that she is among more than 20 people crammed into a cell that is only supposed to sleep 14. If they need supplies like toilet paper, they “may not get it until 18 hours later, depending on the officer,” the declaration says.
The filing came ahead of her attorneys arguing in court on Monday for her release or for the Vermont district court to have jurisdiction over the case.
Öztürk’s attorney says the case should be in Vermont because that’s where she was detained when the petition was filed. However, the government wants it to be transferred to the Western District of Louisiana, where she is currently detained.
U.S. Judge William K. Sessions III said to the government: “The only remedy she’s seeking is release, and you are suggesting that the court has no power to release her because she has a removal proceeding in which she has been ordered detained by immigration authorities.”
“If the court found that there was a constitutional violation, I would turn to you and say, ‘Well, of course, she is to be released.’ And if the government then says, ‘Oh no, she can’t be released because we have a detention order in immigration, which is inviolate, and she’s not going to be released, then we’re in a constitutional crisis.’”
Michael Drescher, an attorney for the Justice Department, said Öztürk shouldn’t be released and argued that habeas relief is not available to a detainee already in removal proceedings at the discretion of the executive branch.
“She is in custody because she is in removal proceedings. She was taken into custody because of her absence of status. It is conceptually impossible to separate her request to be released from custody from the fact that she is in custody because the Attorney General has initiated removal proceedings,” Drescher argued. “She has detained her in her discretion and has detained her as part of those removal proceedings.”
Öztürk’s attorneys argued that her detention violated the First and the Fifth Amendments, and the remedy they are seeking is that she be released.
“If the court grants release here, her removal proceedings will proceed as they are, and there would be no impact on that,” an attorney of Öztürk said during the hearing. “The proceeding continues because the release order would have no bearing on whether her removal proceedings are lawful.”
The attorney said that as far as they know, the entirety of the government’s case is that Öztürk’s visa was revoked and she was detained because she co-authored an op-ed in the school newspaper.
“As far as we know, the government has not presented any additional evidence,” the attorney told the court.
The attorney added that “every minute that she’s detained, her speech is being chilled.”
“And that’s why review from this court … is so important,” an attorney for Öztürk said.
Judge Sessions declined to rule from the bench and said he would take the matter under advisement.
He ordered the parties to submit additional filings to the court about whether it would be viable to hold a habeas hearing in May — if the district of Vermont were to accept jurisdiction of the case — given the complexity of the case and evidence.
