September 30, 2025
MONDOWEISS
Rumeysa Ozturk (Photo: Courtesy of the Ozturk family)
Today, a federal appeals court will hear oral arguments in the cases of two graduate students who say they were unlawfully detained as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on Palestine activism.
The court will consider whether non-citizens can ask a federal district court to intervene if they’re being detained unconstitutionally.
Mohsen Mahdawi is a Columbia University student and permanent U.S. resident. He was arrested during his naturalization interview to become a U.S. citizen.
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A legal brief from Mahdawi’s attorneys revealed that the citizenship interview had been a trap. ICE agents had planned to ambush Mahdawi and send him to the same Louisiana detention facility where Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.
However, a judge blocked the Trump administration from transferring Mahdawi out of Vermont before he could be transported. Two weeks later, a judge ordered his immediate release.
The Trump administration is challenging his release.
“Any other conclusion would give the executive branch a powerful tool of unchecked censorship — the ability to detain noncitizens as punishment for their political viewpoints, thereby chilling the speech of untold others for as long as the government takes to administer its executive branch immigration procedures,” argue Mahdawi’s attorneys.
Rümeysa Öztürk is a PhD student at Tufts University. In March, she was abducted by plainclothes ICE officers on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, and sent to a detention facility in Louisiana without prior notice to the court or her lawyers.
Öztürk was arrested for co-authoring an Op-Ed in her school paper, calling on the university to boycott Israel.
She was detained for 6 weeks before a judge ordered her release.
Trump’s team is pushing for that ruling to be rejected as well.
“Ms. Öztürk is now free, back living and studying in Massachusetts,” said her attorneys. “Respondents did something they had no power at all to do: unconstitutionally detain her to retaliate against and punish her for her speech in support of Palestinian human rights.”
Last week, attorneys for Dr. Badar Khan Suri urged the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the lower court’s rulings that ordered his release on bail.
In March, Khan Suri was arrested outside his Virginia home by masked ICE agents. He was detained across five different facilities through three states, before a federal judge ordered him to be released from a Texas facility
Without providing evidence, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that Suri was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
“Dr. Badar Khan Suri should never have been detained,” said Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project in a statement. “The government’s argument essentially boils down to the sweeping assertion that it can use immigration laws to silence speech it disagrees with and no federal district court has authority to review the constitutionality of its actions. This dangerous and unprecedented argument not only chills Dr. Suri’s and his family’s speech but that of other noncitizens who seek to speak up in support of Palestinian rights. We are asking the court of appeals to reject this frightening proposal.”
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Louisiana ordered activist Mahmoud Khalil be deported for allegedly failing to disclose information on his green card application.
“It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech. Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again,”said Khalil in a statement. “When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide. Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”
Casey Goonan was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for burning an empty UC Berkeley police car in solidarity with the school’s solidarity encampment. The judge tacked on more time than prosecutors asked for via “terrorism enhancement.”
“This domestic terrorist could have taken untold lives had his violent attacks been more successful, and using the evils of Hamas as motivation speaks to his depravity,” declared Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
Goonan’s sentence arrives amid a widening crackdown on left-wing activism. At his Substack, Ken Klippenstein reports on President Trump quietly signing a national security directive identifying “anti-Christian” and “anti-American” views as indicators of left violence.
“This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left wing terrorism,” said Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller said, referring to the issuance.
Klippenstein points out that virtually no congressional Democrats have even commented on the development.
Two protesters are being charged with felony criminal mischief for allegedly spray painting “NYT lies, Gaza dies” on the New York Times headquarters and dousing the building in red paint in July. A photojournalist who took pictures of the direct action is being charged with aggravated harassment in the second degree as a hate crime.
Further Reading
Today, a federal appeals court will hear oral arguments in the cases of two graduate students who say they were unlawfully detained as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on Palestine activism.
The court will consider whether non-citizens can ask a federal district court to intervene if they’re being detained unconstitutionally.
Mohsen Mahdawi is a Columbia University student and permanent U.S. resident. He was arrested during his naturalization interview to become a U.S. citizen.
Advertisement
A legal brief from Mahdawi’s attorneys revealed that the citizenship interview had been a trap. ICE agents had planned to ambush Mahdawi and send him to the same Louisiana detention facility where Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.
However, a judge blocked the Trump administration from transferring Mahdawi out of Vermont before he could be transported. Two weeks later, a judge ordered his immediate release.
The Trump administration is challenging his release.
“Any other conclusion would give the executive branch a powerful tool of unchecked censorship — the ability to detain noncitizens as punishment for their political viewpoints, thereby chilling the speech of untold others for as long as the government takes to administer its executive branch immigration procedures,” argue Mahdawi’s attorneys.
Rümeysa Öztürk is a PhD student at Tufts University. In March, she was abducted by plainclothes ICE officers on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, and sent to a detention facility in Louisiana without prior notice to the court or her lawyers.
Öztürk was arrested for co-authoring an Op-Ed in her school paper, calling on the university to boycott Israel.
She was detained for 6 weeks before a judge ordered her release.
Trump’s team is pushing for that ruling to be rejected as well.
“Ms. Öztürk is now free, back living and studying in Massachusetts,” said her attorneys. “Respondents did something they had no power at all to do: unconstitutionally detain her to retaliate against and punish her for her speech in support of Palestinian human rights.”
Last week, attorneys for Dr. Badar Khan Suri urged the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the lower court’s rulings that ordered his release on bail.
In March, Khan Suri was arrested outside his Virginia home by masked ICE agents. He was detained across five different facilities through three states, before a federal judge ordered him to be released from a Texas facility
Without providing evidence, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that Suri was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
“Dr. Badar Khan Suri should never have been detained,” said Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project in a statement. “The government’s argument essentially boils down to the sweeping assertion that it can use immigration laws to silence speech it disagrees with and no federal district court has authority to review the constitutionality of its actions. This dangerous and unprecedented argument not only chills Dr. Suri’s and his family’s speech but that of other noncitizens who seek to speak up in support of Palestinian rights. We are asking the court of appeals to reject this frightening proposal.”
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Louisiana ordered activist Mahmoud Khalil be deported for allegedly failing to disclose information on his green card application.
“It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech. Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again,”said Khalil in a statement. “When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide. Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”
Casey Goonan was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for burning an empty UC Berkeley police car in solidarity with the school’s solidarity encampment. The judge tacked on more time than prosecutors asked for via “terrorism enhancement.”
“This domestic terrorist could have taken untold lives had his violent attacks been more successful, and using the evils of Hamas as motivation speaks to his depravity,” declared Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
Goonan’s sentence arrives amid a widening crackdown on left-wing activism. At his Substack, Ken Klippenstein reports on President Trump quietly signing a national security directive identifying “anti-Christian” and “anti-American” views as indicators of left violence.
“This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left wing terrorism,” said Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller said, referring to the issuance.
Klippenstein points out that virtually no congressional Democrats have even commented on the development.
Two protesters are being charged with felony criminal mischief for allegedly spray painting “NYT lies, Gaza dies” on the New York Times headquarters and dousing the building in red paint in July. A photojournalist who took pictures of the direct action is being charged with aggravated harassment in the second degree as a hate crime.
Further Reading
The Nation: Trump Is Lying About Antifa to Justify His Authoritarian Crackdown
In These Times: Mask Off, Maersk
Consequence of Sound: Björk Joins “No Music for Genocide” Israel Boycott
AP: Microsoft reduces Israel’s access to cloud and AI products over reports of mass surveillance in Gaza
Berkeley faculty and staff members: We condemn the school’s surrender to Trump, and we will not be silenced on Palestine
A group of U.S. veterans has joined the global flotilla sailing to Gaza
California educators urge Gavin Newsom to veto ‘Antisemitism Coordinator’ bill, fearing it will suppress criticism of Israel
In These Times: Mask Off, Maersk
Consequence of Sound: Björk Joins “No Music for Genocide” Israel Boycott
AP: Microsoft reduces Israel’s access to cloud and AI products over reports of mass surveillance in Gaza
Berkeley faculty and staff members: We condemn the school’s surrender to Trump, and we will not be silenced on Palestine
A group of U.S. veterans has joined the global flotilla sailing to Gaza
California educators urge Gavin Newsom to veto ‘Antisemitism Coordinator’ bill, fearing it will suppress criticism of Israel
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