Basile, LA: Community rallies and celebrates freedom for Rümeyza Öztürk
Basile, LA – On May 9, a dozen people protested outside the South Louisiana ICE processing center, demanding the release of international student Rümeyza Öztürk. At the same time as the rally, her case was heard remotely by a judge in Vermont who ultimately ordered Öztürk’s immediate release. The judge also stated that her case would set a precedent for others who have been unlawfully detained for exercising free speech under the Trump administration.
Organizers raised their demands with chants including, “What do we want? Free Rümeyza! When do we want it? Now!” and, “Louisiana, Louisiana, what do you say? The freedom our people deserve can’t wait!”
Öztürk is a Tufts University graduate student and a member of SEIU 509 in Boston, Massachusetts.
On March 25 she was detained by masked, plainclothes federal agents for writing an op-ed in her student newspaper criticizing her university’s response to the genocide in Gaza. After 45 days in detention and a national defense campaign, Öztürk was finally granted bail and will return to Massachusetts. Although her legal battle is not over, her release marks an important victory for free speech and Palestine solidarity movements.
Speakers expressed solidarity with Öztürk. “They have tried to make examples out of students like Rümeyza for speaking out, but that only highlights their panic. We, the students, are the future. The only way to get the future you want is to fight for it in the present,” said Adelaide Ritzman of Students for a Democratic Society at Tulane University.
Despite constant DHS and ICE agent surveillance of the demonstration, protesters loudly chanted “Whose Democracy? Our democracy!”
Speakers emphasized that this was not the end of the struggle for freedom for international students. “Now my union sibling, she is being held in horrible conditions in clear violation of our most basic humanity. As a physician, I see the toll that this takes on human lives, on our physical and on our mental health. And as a union leader, I see it as an attack on the very heart of our collective power,” declared Dr. Taylor Walker, President of the Committee of Interns and Residents Service Employees International Union (CIR SEIU).
“This is a victory for the students, immigrants, and for our rights in the United States,” concluded Dr. Walker.